ACCIDENTAL DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 108, 10 May 1927, Page 11

ACCIDENTAL DEATH.

FATE OF TRAMWAY EMPLOYEE FALL FROM MOVING CAR. EVIDENCE AT INQUEST. - Accidental death, was the verdict returned by the coroner, Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., yesterday afternoon, when an inquiry was held touching on the death of Alfred Auther, a tramway employee, of Islington Street, Ponsonby. The deceased was fatally injured on the morning of April 9 last, when he fell from a moving tramcar at Freeman's Bay. Sergeant Waterman appeared for the police, Mr. R. H. Mackay for the Tramways Department, Mr. J. J. Sullivan for the Tramways Union, and Mr. McLiver for the widow of the deceased. The evidence was that the deceased, together with two other tramway employees, Conductors Sarsfield and Lee Tracy, was picked up by the last tram to Ponsonby on April 9, at the intersection of Victoria and Patterson Streets. The three men elected to travel on the platform. When the tram took the turn near the bottom of College Hill, at 12.10 a.m., the deceased lost his balance, and fell to the road over the chain. The tram was immediately stopped, and Auther was picked up in a semi-con-scious state. He was removed to the hospital, where he died at 5 o'clock the same day. The point in dispute was whether or not the chain was in position when the accident occurred. Questioned by Mr. McLiver, one witness said he would stake his life on the fact that it was. "Is there any rule that tramway men have to travel on the platform ?" queried Mr. Sullivan. Witness: "There is a rule in our book saying that if a passenger wants a seat, tramwaymen have to leave their seats." There were not seats available on the night of the accident. There was, however, standing room inside the car. A medical witness said that the deceased's injuries consisted of laceration of the brain and a fractured skull. The Coroner found that the deceased met his death by accidentally falling from a moving tramear on April 9 last, thereby fracturing his skull. In regard to the suggestion that the chain was not in position, he said there did not seem any doubt that it was up.