Steve has identified a problem in the safety of these crossings which had not occured to me before!
Steve - I'm no legal expert - Callaghan wrote:
3. Look both ways and listen for the absence of a loud whistle (horn, whatever!).
4. No audible of visual evidence of train
Your average tourist with his Wainright's Guide book, following the footpath, will have NO IDEA what the horn noise is, as there are no signs telling you that a train will hoot as it approaches the crossing!
Following the article in the Gazette and on Radio Cumbria, many locals contacted me to say they had heard the horns, and had no idea of the cause.
At 120 decibels, 5 metres from the SIDE of the track, you can imagine how far away the noise is heard! The company employed by the RSSB had this to say:
AEA Technologies research for the RSSB wrote:
It should be noted that in the trials reported in Reference 1 and 2 the listening panels were not
listening for the horn that was just audible but rather for the one that was most audible. This
has serious implications when assessing audibility at 400 metres as it means that the warning
that was chosen was not the one that was just clearly audible
http://www.rssb.co.uk/pdf/reports/Audibility%20of%20Warning%20Horns%20-%20Final%20Report.pdf
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