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Show At an unprotected railroad cross- freight ing near Congers, N.Y., an train slices a school bus in half. Five high school students are killed, and 47 more ae seriously injured. At another crossing, in rural Ohio, 10 frolicking children die when they bobsled into the path of an oncoming locomotive. In Californias San Joaquin County, a freight train collides with a minibus. The minibus is destroyed. So are its 83-c- ar eight .teenaged occupants. ffver since the automobile replaced the public has been one of our grade crossing IJa the it may well be because you cannot make your mind do as you wish. If your dog runs away every time you .. . . call him, he is not yours. And this is true of the mind. If you cannot control it, it is not really yours. But by regular, persistent, earnest practice of Fellowship, you yoga, as taught by will succeed in controlling your mind. While yoga has to do with becoming conscious of ones Self, or Soul, and realizing its oneness with of this search are peace of Spirit, the of a mind, feeling security, happiness, efficiency and . horse-and-bugg- y, deadliest, and least publicized, highway killers. According to the Department of Transportations Federal Railroad Administration, roughly 80 percent of the 232,000 such crossings in use today are improperly protected. Each year, these death traps claim 1500 lives and cause 3500 injuries. Thousands more Americans barely escape tragedy. Since 1967, school buses alone have been involved in an average of 250 annually. In August, the National Safety Council, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Highway Research Board conference at sponsored a three-da- y Ohio State University in Columbus to discuss the problem. Here were some of the suggestions: school buses. Says the Council: "School bus routes can be revised in many cases to avoid grade near-miss- es te success. Autobiography of a Yogi," by Parama-hans- a Yogananda ($5 cloth; $1 .95 paper, at most bookstores) the best book ever written introducing the whole science of yoga. And send today for a free copy of the booklet Undreamed-o- f Possibilities." Read Fellowship, Dept. 3880 San Rafael Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90065 19-- E Please send me a free copy of your booklet Possibiities. Undreamed-o- f Name Street City Stae 16 Zip Congers, N.Y.: Five students died when school bus was rammed by freight train. crossings entirely, or be diverted to crossings protected by automatic gates." Install new-typ- e signs, like the exat 204 crosserected ones perimental between Washington, D.C., and ings Va. The signs are W. Parkersburg, reflector-ize- d diamond-shapeon painted metal, 36 i. Jies in height, with a d legend imprinted on a d black-lettere- yellow background. Replace the crossbuck with the automatic short-argate, synchronized with nearby flashing red lights. This equipment, which combines safety and economy, costs aboi $35,000 to instdil. devices to actiUse electric-ey- e vate automatic signals, instead of toand expensive days cables. underground Perhaps most important of all, educate and when necessary pro1 cute offending motorists, who are often as much to blame for accidents as m faulty equipment. Safety enforced San Joaquin County, Calif., where the minibus tragedy occurred, recently launched a program to protect its nearly 1000 grade crossings. The campaign is based upon "the three E's:" Enforce-r-.-n- t, Education and Engineering. Among other measures, judges have raised the minimum bail for violations to $100, and required court appearances in many cases. As a result, grade crossing accidents have been reduced. Of course, many of these suggestions require money, more money than our floundering railroads possess. But today, the railroads no longer have to do the job alone. Uncle Sam has provided the states with more than $530 million in highway trust funds, all of which may be used to finance grade crossings improvements. The problem is that they don't have to be used for this purpose. Today, Congress is considering legislation which would require states to allocate at least 5 percent of their highway trust money to grade crossing safety. The measure would also permit the money to be spent on state as well as federal property. Perhaps some day it will be possible, in spite of the obstacles, to eliminate grade crossings entirely. Until then, as one grizzled engineer puts it, "There's not much to do when you whistle by a crossing except pray. PARADE OCTOBER 1, 1972 |