LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 67, Issue 243, 26 July 1947, Page 6

LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

DEATH OF MR AND MRS D. JONES INQUEST CONCLUDED CHRISTCHURCH, Tills Day. A verdict 9 that David Morgan Jones died on May 7, 1947, the cause of-death being multiple injuries received when the car lie was driving came into collision with a train, was returned by the Coroner (Mr H. P. Lawry) when an inquest was held yesterday. He also returned a verdict that Mrs Mary Kathleen Jones died from multiple injuries received when she was a passenger in the car driven by her husband.

Alwyn Bryce Richardson, a tractordriver, said he left his home at Ashburton on the morning of May. 7 with his mother and stepfather in a car driven by his stepfather. On the way to Christchurch they stopped at Forman’s Road, and his mother went into a house there. He could not remember anything more until he recovered consciousness in hospital. He did not learn of the deaths of his mother and stepfather until five weeks after the accident.

Cyril O’Connell, engine-driver on the train, said the train approached the crossing at about 35 miles an hour. There was a bend coming to the crossing, and he sounded the whistle and shut off steam to let the train drift into Hornby station. The crossing was clear when he looked out the side window- He looked ahead and saw a small car come on to the south line, travelling-slowly. He sounded the whistle and applied the brakes and the emergency brake. The car passed in front of the train, out qf his view. For a moment he thought the car was clear, but the luggage-carrier from the car flew up in. the air and he knew a collision had occurred. The train stopped 100 yards clear of the crossing, and he went back to find a motor-car thrown through the fence on the left side. David Jones was lying on his face near the right-hand wheel, and Mrs Jones was lying at the rear of the car.

Corroborative evidence was given by Geoffrey George Leggett, enginefireman. >. ' William Robert Palmer, ambulance drivel*, said Mrs Jones was semi-con-scious when she was taken into the hospital. Medical testimony was given by Dr. M. G. Somerville, an assistant pathologist' at the Christchurch Public Hospital.'