HIKURANGI TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 39, 16 February 1931, Page 3

HIKURANGI TRAGEDY.

DEATHS AT CROSSING. CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION. £750 CLAIMED j JURY AWARDS £335. The first claim for compensation arising out of the level crossing tragedy at Hikuran'gi, near Wliangarei, on the evening of April 5 last year, came before Mr. Justice Herdman and a jury in the Supreme Court to-day. A claim for £750 was made by John Frew, coal miner, of Hikurangi, father of Andrew Frew, a youth of 17, who was killed in a bus owned by the Northern Motor Bus Company, of Wliangarei, and driven by Noel Wilkinson, which collided with a train at McLeod'e crossing, Hikurangi. Mr. P. J. O'Regan, of Wellington, appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. R; A. Singer appeared for the defendants, the Bus Company. Before the case opened the defendants paid into Court a sum of £130 and costs to satisfy the claim, but denied any legal liability. Counsel for the plaintiil' said the boy was earning £3 ]/ a week at the time of his deatli and considerable pecuniary los_ had resulted to the parents. At the conclusion of the hearing hii? Honor directed the jury that they should not consider the claim, in the light of a punishment to the Bus Company. It was purely a civil proceeding. There was only the pecuniary loss and not the pain and suffering to be considered. The jury awarded £338 damages and eoists.