SEDDON TRAIN SMASH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 146, 2 April 1948, Page 2

SEDDON TRAIN SMASH

Evidence of District Engineer USE OF FIRST-CLASS MEN (P.A.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Further evidence was given by James Binstead, of Christchurch, district mechanical engineer, before the Board of Inquiry to-day into the Seddon railway disaster.

Cross-examined by Mr Wild (for the fireman and driver of the train) witness said it was usual to put special grade drivers, men who had 24 years’ experience, on the Christchurch-to-Invercargill express. Had it been possible when Gurr went to Kaikoura, it would have been preferable for him to have run over the line as third man on an engine before taking charge of a train.. As it was, he took a goods train over the track—No. 931 north-bound goods before running back with the south-bound express.

Witness agreed that written records in the Christchurch locomotive depot, from which Gurr was transferred to Kaikoura, showed that Gurr had a knowledge of the. road only up to Kaikoura, but he was the only man .who could be found to go to Kaikoura at the time.

It,was better to send him there, said witness, than to have other drivers at Kaikoura working excessive hours. “There is nothing in my records to show that Gurr was ever a negligent driver.”