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Show RECKLESS DRIVERS CAUSE DEATH TOLL That the negligent and careless driver, and not the automobile, is responsible for the toll of death at railroad crossings, is the finding of S. "T. Bledsoe, General Counsel of the Sante Fe, who based his conclusions upon exhaustive reports yathered from every possible angle. ' ; It is shown that in a year 2268 non-tresspassers were! killed and 6314 were injured. Automobiles were involved in 84 per cent of these accidents. ' That the railroads are spending immense sums to protect life and property is shown by the fact that nearly 1,000 railway crossings were removed in 1923, although at the same time 2500 were installed, install-ed, largely in obedience to public authoritity. The removal of the grade crossings in the one year, the official states, cost the railroads $75,000,000. In a startling statement. Counsel Bledsoe says it would cost almost as much to remove all the grade crossings on railroads rail-roads in this country as it cost to build the lines. ! Railroad crossings having the greatest traffic density are protected pro-tected by crossing signs, bells, gates, flagmen and by the ringing of locomotive bell and sounding of whistles. j "A railroad track and a railroad crossing are danger- signals," : says the statement. "One New England railroad having only 230 crossing gates had 390 such gates demolished by automobiles crashing through them in front of approaching trains, in 1923. One Ohio railroad rail-road had twenty collisions between its trains and autos in one year, where the crossings were protected by bells that in each case were ringing." |