That is the blunt reminder delivered by stark white crosses which have appeared beside three railway level crossings in Dunedin this week.
The crosses, beside level crossings at St Andrew St and the Wickliffe St and State Highway 88 shared path at Ravensbourne, are among those installed at sites across New Zealand this week to mark Rail Safety Week.
KiwiRail group chief executive Greg Miller, in a statement, said there were 299 near misses at level crossings in the year to June 30, involving people, vehicles and trains.
The incidents included 18 near misses in Otago and 11 in Southland.
There were also 18 collisions at level crossings across New Zealand during the same period, including one each in Otago and Southland.
Mr Miller said while fatalities resulting from collisions were tragic, the close calls took a "huge toll" on all those involved, including locomotive engineers.
"In a lot of cases people are missing death or serious injury by seconds. It is often just luck that they are not killed.
"Near misses can be one of the hardest parts of locomotive engineers' jobs. They start to develop a sixth sense for danger, as they try to anticipate how a pedestrian or motorist will behave at an approaching level crossing."
The new safety campaign launched at Parliament by KiwiRail and TrackSafe NZ aimed to encourage people to be more vigilant around railway tracks
The white half-crosses represented those who had narrowly avoided a serious or fatal collision.
Some were interactive, with a QR code that could be scanned by phones to play a near-miss video.
