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Show AUTOMOBILE, ACCIDENTS One of the most frequent automobile accidents occurs at railroad -crossings, when the motorist attempts to cross in ' front of a swiftly moving train. Jn .the days before automobiles ,people'msed' to get killed in the same way when driving horses. Sensible persons learned that-a i train at fifty miles an hour covers ' an" astonishing amount of space within ten seconds. , ti But when automobiles came along and were themselves able to cover a good deal of ground in ten seconds ,manv .people got their sporting blood' up. The average aver-age motorist dislikes to slow up. If a train is seen some distance" away, he takes the chance where he would not with a horse. But there' is a lot of difference between fifty and twenty miles an hour, as a great many motorists find out ,though they may not ljye long enough,to reflect on their experience. ' At many railroad crossings the trains come from behind trees, buildings, or cuts in the line ,so that they can not be seen. The modern locomotive moves pretty noiselessly, unless puffing up- a' grade. Its ordinary sound would not be heard in 'an automobile above the noise the motor makes. There is an obligation upon locomotive engineers approaching a 'crossing where the track is not clearly visible from both ends of the road ,to blow their whistles several times, so. as to give a good warning warn-ing of their approach. If the track at a railroad crossing is ' hot clearly visible in both directions, and if it is not protected by any gate or flag man, it is much wiser for the automobile garty to stop and listen. It will take but alf a moment, and they can easily make up .that loss of valuable time. Automobiles Automo-biles neVer yet have been able to butt the trains off the track, though they still continue trying it with regrettable persistency. per-sistency. . |
