WARNING NOT SEEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 9

WARNING NOT SEEN.

FARMER'S FUTILE EFFORT. VAIN RACE TO REACH SIGNAL. WELLINGTON, Sunday. An eye-witness of the accident was Mr. W. Howell, whose dairy farm is directly opposite the spot where the slip occurred. Just after daylight Mr. Howell went out into his paddocks to bring in his cows for their morning milking, when his attention was attracted by the exposed clayey soil of the sloping hillside. Realising that there must be a slip on the line and that the Main Trunk train was due to pass through Paraparaumu .in a few minutes, he made a desperate but un successful effort io intercept the southbound express. "I was out getting in my cows when I saw the slip in the hillside, &aull il. Howell, "and although I could not actu ally see if it were across the line, 1 knew it must be over the track. X looked at my watch, and found it was 6.23 a.m. The train was due ir. a tew minutes, and I immediately ran toward the station, nearly half a mile away. It was my intention to break the si D na wire, so that the arm of the signal would go up to the danger position, for I knew there was no one on duty the station at that hour. "I was about 40 yards off the station ■when the engine whistled, and a moment or so later it passed through. I waved frantically and called as loudly as I could, but with the noise of the tram and poor visibility it was impossible for the engine crew to hear or see me. The rain was pouring in torrents, and should think the visibility of the drive, would not be more than 50 yards.