"WARNINGS NEEDED."

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 167, 18 July 1927, Page 5

"WARNINGS NEEDED."

COMMENT OF CORONER.

LABOURER KILLED ON PRIVATE SIDING.

VERDICT OF -ACCIDENTAL DEATH,

"Accidental death through being run over by a truck underneath which lie ua3 working"' was the finding of Mr. •P W. Poynton. S.M., at an in'|ue-t on Saturday at Otahuhu, on the death r.f Charles Harold Hinton.

Mr. Hinton, who wa« a single man. 2-'! years old, wa« a labourer for the Challenge Pho-nhates Co.. Ltd. On May 30 he was working in a shed on a private siding. While he was under a truck, a train was shunted into the shed, and backed into the truck, which ran over hi* che.-t and abdomen, crushing him. He was taken to the hospital, where he lingered for a month, finally dying from his injuries on .Time 30.

At the inquest, whii h lasted from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m., a lengthy argument was held regarding the possible liability of the Railway Department or the Challenge Phosphate Company, Ltd.

Mr. -T. Hore appeared for the company, Messrs. J. J. Sullivan and \V. F. Mason for the dead man's relatives, Mr. \Y. R Tuck for the driver of the shunting engine, and Mr Hammond for the Railway Department. Very long statements were given, and witnesses were subjected to lengthy examinations and cross-examination-. The coroner, in a long "summing-up." held that there was no negligence on the part of the train driver. He said that the company should have a more effective warning fitted, and added that if it had not been fitted since the accident, as he understood it had been, some distinctive mechanical warning sh'-tild bo in the shed for employees when trains wore being backed in.