Sensors failed to close the gates, creating the potential for disaster.
By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
A major disaster was narrowly averted at the busy Kfar Shmaryahu-Herzliya railway crossing last week after alert drivers noticed that a train was approaching but the gates were not coming down, reports the Hebrew weekly Ha'ir-Ra'anana. The drivers pulled over just meters from the train tracks and waved frantically at other drivers to warn them not to proceed on to the crossing, and the train passed by without incident.
According to the report, just one year ago a new radar device was fitted onto the level crossing that was supposed to lower the gates automatically as soon as a train began approaching. But last week the sensor failed to close the gates, creating the potential for disaster.
Drivers at the scene reported the failure to police and to Israel Railways. An Israel Railways spokesman said the failure had been caused by a "technical fault," which had since been rectified.