I WRITE in relation to your article on Friday concerning driver behaviour at railway crossings ("A hotspot for crossing 'idiots', report says", Bendigo Advertiser, August 15, 2014).
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We live right alongside the Napier Street crossing, which was highlighted as one of the "black spots" for accidents of this nature.
I can tell you that over the years I have observed driver behaviour that boggles the imagination.
First you have those that prefer to drive through and around the descending gates rather than wait for the train to pass.
Why anyone would risk their lives just in order to save three or four minutes’ travel time is beyond my comprehension.
(And at the risk of sounding discriminatory, these vehicles are generally, but not always, large cars or utes with loud engines and noisy exhausts).
Then you have the situation which is even more terrifying - faulty boom gates.
The way it normally unfolds is that when the gates are stuck down and the traffic has backed up to a considerable degree, drivers lose patience.
The drivers at the rear blow their horns incessantly at the drivers up front near the crossing.
The drivers in front are torn between walking back and assaulting the drivers at the rear, or driving through the closed gates.
They generally choose the latter.
To see car after car slowly drive around and through the closed gates while the lights are flashing and bells sounding makes the hair stand up on the back of your head, because although the gates are faulty that does not preclude a train from actually coming down the line at any given moment.
I always ring V-Line or triple-0 in these situations, but it has forever been my fear that one day luck will run out for one (or more) of these motorists and we will have a disaster of epic proportions.
I urge all drivers, if you are ever stuck at a railway crossing, listen to the radio, bite your nails or scratch your head - but do not be impatient... someone could die.