At last. At long last.
Finally someone has taken the danger from open level crossings seriously.
The Rail Regulator has said that barriers should be introduced at level crossings throughout the Highlands. And not before time.
I'm sure, somewhere, there is a record of how many people have died at open level crossings over the past ten years. It seems to me it's a fairly regular occurrence. I guess the number of fatalities is probably quite significant. It's certainly significant to anyone who's lost a loved one at a level crossing.
These crossings are simply death traps.
The little bell which rings when a train's coming is pretty well inaudible unless you're a pedestrian. There are lights that flash, but you have to trust they're working properly. In any case, if the sun's shining in the wrong direction it's impossible to tell whether the lights are flashing or not.
At most crossings there are no lines of sight which would allow you to see whether a train's coming.
There are clear risks in using these crossings for all of us, no matter how good our driving.
But we're not all perfect drivers. Show me the driver who says his attention has never wandered while he's been behind the wheel and I'll show you the liar. The fact is that every single one of us is capable of being distracted while on the road. And if that moment of distraction happens at an open level crossing you'd better just pray there's no train coming.
After every one of these dreadful accidents the rail companies investigate. We are assured, each time, that the equipment has been in perfect working order. All of these accidents seem to be put down to a single factor; driver error.
And that's the difficulty. Because Network Rail and its various predecessor organisations behaves as if we are all automatons, programmed to stop infallibly when level crossing lights flash.
The thing is, we're not. We're human. And as humans, we make mistakes from time to time. A mistake at one of Network Rail's open level crossings can be pretty unforgiving if there's a train hurtling towards you at, say, 70 mph.
The case which seems to have prompted the demand that barriers be installed was that of the two thousand and nine accident at the Halkirk crossing in Caithness.
Angus MacKay, who was 81, was at the wheel. His wife Margaret was the same age. The couple came from Inverness. Mr MacKay's brother Donald, who was 66 and was from Latheron, was also in the car.
We will never know what happened that day. Maybe Angus didn't see the lights flashing. Maybe he was distracted. Maybe his concentration simply slipped a little. In any case he drove onto the crossing just as the train came through. All three in the car were killed.
I do wonder, however, why it was this case rather than any of the previous horrifically similar fatal accidents over many years which finally prompted the demand that barriers should be introduced.
Is this simply a case of ageism?
At first sight it does look as if the deaths of pensioners is taken more seriously than the deaths of younger people.
In 2006 two seventeen year olds, Paul Oliver and Alan Thain, were killed at the Delny open level crossing when Richard Fleming (who survived and was later imprisoned for dangerous driving) was at the wheel.
But at Fleming's trial the judge, Lord Brailsford said: "Perhaps most importantly, and I think unusually, this is a case where on the information presented to me this morning there is cogent and persuasive evidence that there were problems with the level crossing where this accident occurred."
That the Office of the Rail Regulator has now managed to find something to say about the danger of these crossing is to be welcomed. But why, when the problems associated with open level crossings has been known for decades, was nothing done earlier?
Thankfully, lives will be saved as a result of the introduction of barriers at these crossings. It's just a pity so many had to die before anything was done about it.
