KILLED BY A TRAIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 155, 12 April 1930, Page 7

KILLED BY A TRAIN.

CROSSING-KEEPER’S DEATH. EX-RESIDENT OF ASHBURTON. (Special to the “Guardian.”) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Another crossing fatality was added to the long list for this year, when Mr Arthur William Bright, the crossingkeeper at Waltham Road, stepped back in front of the 4.23 p.m. messenger train from Lyttelton, and was practically cut to pieces. Deceased, whose age was 42, was a married man with six children, the oldest being 11 and the youngest three. His home was at 15, Buffon Street, Opawa. He was a returned soldier, and had lost one arm as a result of his war service. Mr Bright was .engaged m warning people on the south side of the lines at Waltham Road that a goods train was approaching. It is thought tnat some or those, waiting pushed forward, necessitating a backward 1 move on the part of deceased. At the time the Lyttelton train, due in Christchurch at 4.40 p.m., arrived at the crossing on the second set of lines from the north side, but the man apparently never heard it coming, although it is said to have given warning with the hooter installed on the electric locomotive. Deceased stepped night into the path of the train., which was travelling at a speed of about 20 miles per hour, and was dragged oyer 150 yards by the engine, his body being terribly mangled. Identification was made possible only by the fact that he was wearing a uniform and was known to be on duty at the time of the accident. Mr Bright, who was formerly a resident of Ashburton, entered tne service of the Railway Department on August 20, 1923, and had been stationed at Waltham Road for three months. Previously he was for several years crossing-keeper at Garlands Road. Among his fellow-employees he was very popular, while people who passed him regularly spoke of him as a very careful, painstaking mail, doing his very best to protect the public at his crossing. The Waltham Road crossing is gaming an unenviable reputation. A youno- man on a motor-cycle was killed there recently.' Other fatalities have occurred at the same place in the last few years. f