By Victoria Stone-Meadows
YARRA Valley Railway and Healesville Police are less than impressed with road users’ behaviour surrounding the level railway crossing on the Kinglake-Healesville Road in Healesville.
Vice President of Yarra Valley Railway, Brett Whelan, said road users ignoring the crossing signals has become a serious problem.
Reports from Yarra Valley Railway reveal that for every 14 train crossings at this particular spot there is a car that doesn’t comply with the light directives, or has a near miss with the oncoming train.
Mr Whelan said if drivers continue to ignore the crossing signals it is just a matter of time before the worst happens.
“We’ve had a number of near misses and a larger number of noncompliance issues,” he said.
“The drivers of the trains are required under law to blow their whistles at certain intervals but road drivers are ignoring that and cutting in front of trains.
“We are afraid we are going to have more near misses and the most unfortunate thing is an accident and there have been some really close calls.”
Mr Whelan said every time there is a vehicle driver that doesn’t comply with the crossing signals, police are made aware of the incident.
“Every time it happens, it goes through our operations people and that all goes to the police, so the police are fully informed and we take licence plate numbers when we can and that’s sent straight to police,” he said.
“Every week we are sending notices through to Victoria Police at Healesville so they are fully aware of the situation.”
When the train ran last Sunday at least four noncompliance incidents were recorded at the level crossing and sent to the police.
Healesville Police Leading Senior Constable Tim Stewart said the level crossing has been a point of issue for road drivers for some time.
“It’s obviously not your standard train crossing there, and I think sometimes people aren’t expecting it, and because there’s no physical boom gate, people get quite confused as well,” he said.
“It’s fairly dangerous.”
Leading Sec Const Stewart urged drivers to be cautious around trains and to obey the train signal crossings like any other traffic light.
“People need to take it easy and be mindful of trains,” he said.
“The penalty is a $777 fine and four demerit points for failing to stop at a level crossing.”
Leading Sen Const Stewart said Healesville Police would be patrolling more often and would follow up reports from Yarra Valley Railway of vehicles failing to stop at the signals.
