Making Railway Crossings Safe.

Level crossings are that, crossings that level the unwary or disturbed.  And it's not a rarity, too often Kiwirail is beset with avoidable acts,be them near misses (vehicles or human endeavours.)

In the past (and even now) there has been very little education of the general populace and coupled with the lack of technology in Railways the status quo abounds.


So how do you make these events requiring emergency services safe? Putting barrier arms on every crossing is very cost prohibitive and many other ideas too are costly.  So where do we turn??

At a possible $1000 per cam and $350 per train (engine driver has a monitor), all crossings will be monitored. My suggestion is the whole crossing be monitored by a Go Pro (or similar) with the link to 500metres down the track triggering an image on the Train's monitor.  Simply put, Kiwirail goes hitech.  500m may not be suitable maybe longer.  The safety rating would improve markedly and a Train Driver doesn't need therapy.