Show Need For Greater Care In Railroad Crossing By The increased danger of highway highway high high- way grade crossing accidents be because because be be- cause of s roads and snow snowstorms snowstorms storms and the need for greater caution on the part put of drivers who carelessly run Into the side of trains at crossings or stall their cars on railroad tracks was sized today by W W. M. M Jeffers president president dent of the Union Pacific Railroad Since January 1st there have been 13 cases of this description on the Union Pacific at widely separated locations and in seven states A Astal stal staled ed e on a public highway highway high high- way Tay crossing at Richland resulted in the derailment of a fast mall mail and express train and the death of the engineer and fireman Carelessness on the part of automobile auto mobile drivers is to blame In every instance of this sort said Mr Jeffers It is true of course that icy pavements and snow storms are contributing factors but such wea ther her and icy roads ought to make drivers more careful Instead they seem to take more chances than ever The public c usually tries to blame the railroads for crossing accidents but the cases where any blame can be to the railroads are rare Indeed There Is little excuse for fora a driver who pays no attention to wigwag signals or crossing lights and crossing watchmen and drives into the side of trains But nut that sort of thing happens regularly A speed bug who tries to beat a train to a crossing Is taking a foolish chance But nut at east least he is not so foolish as the drivers who runs Into cars tint that are In the middle of a moving train trainor or one standing still In all cases cass since the first of the year not a s single one was trying to beat a atrain atrain atran train tran to a crossing Every one was wasa a case ase of utter failure to look both ways In ht approaching a crossing and anti stopping to make sure In addition to the extreme hazard hazard hazard ha ha- zard to the drivers of the automobiles automobiles automobiles automo automo- biles there is always the chance of d derailing a train tran which was what happened at Richland with the result that an engineer and fireman fire fire- man lost their lives because of the carelessness of the motorist whose car became stalled on the tracks ahead of an approaching train Too much care cannot be exercised by automobile drivers In approaching approach approach- ing and crossing railroad tracks a and d highway patrol of of oL have a distinct duty to perform perform perform per per- form in this serious situation |