FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7382, 7 August 1889, Page 3

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

WAITARA, July 21. A fatal accident occurred on the railway line, between Waitara and Sentry Hill, at about 5.40 p.m. on Saturday evening, when a man named Alexander Brown was cut to pieces at the Richmond road crossing. The engine-driver of the Waitara train noticed some dark object lying on the line, but it was impossible to stop the train in time, although the brakes were put down. When the body was picked up it was literally cut to pieces and quite unrecognisable. The deceased was identified by documents found in his pockets. He was a mill owner at Ngaire, and was on his way home from New Plymouth. He got out of the train at Sentry Hill, and it went off without him. The pointsman stated that he noticed the deceased and asked him to wait for the next train, but he said he would walk on some distance. It appears he walked as far as the first crossing, when it is supposed his foot was caught in the cattle stop, and he could not get away. The train shortly afterwards came up but could not be stopped in time to save him. An inquest was held at Waitara this afternoon, when the following verdict was returned:— " That the deceased on the 20th July was trespassing, probably inadvertently, by straying off the road iv the dark on to the railway line between Sentry Hill and Waitara, wheu he was overtaken by the 6.10 train at Sentry Hill and killed, and there is not any blame attached to the railway officials."