KILLED BY RAILWAY ENGINE .

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 103, 3 May 1919, Page 9

KILLED BY RAILWAY ENGINE .

VERDICT OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH.

An inquiry was held by Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., yesterday afternoon, into the circumstances of the death of Donald Rennie, an. able seaman on the Tainui, who sustained fatal injuries through being run over by an engine near the Railway Wharf on Thursday evening. Norman Stringer, engine-driver, said that about 7.45 p.m. three wagons were being shunted from the wharf past X shed. Deceased was lying across the line just past the shed,, but witness did not see him till the engine was almost upon him. The brakes were thrown on immediately, but the locomotive could not be , pulled up. The cow-catcher passed over the man a.nd the back wheels fan partly over him. The engine, which had been travelling cab first, stopped witli the rear wheels resting on deceased. The power was reversed, and with assistance witness extricated tho deceased, who was terribly injured about the thighs. Rennie was able to epeak a tew words after he was extricated. The spot where the accident occurred was not well lit. The accident occurred putside the railway fence, but on railway property. The engine was travelling at about four miles an hour.

Wallace Jones, fireman in the employ of the Railway Department, corroborated the evidence given by Stringer. James Gordon Fox, ordinary seaman on the Tainui, deposed as to seeing deceased on board the Ehip at 6 p.m. on Thursday' evening, when he was sobei and well. Deceased, who was a single man, 23 years of age, belonged to North Shields, England, and joined the shij> last month in England. He had no relatives in New Zealand.

Alexander Gordon, chief officer of tho vessel, stated that deceased was perfectly sober in the afternoon at 4 o'clock, when he last saw him. •

Formal evidence was given by Constable -J. Isbister, who accompanied deceased to the Hospital, where he .was. admitted at 8.25 p.m. and died at 9.45 p.m. Witness diet not notice any smell of liquor about deceased, and there was nothing to suggest that he had been subjected to foul play before the accident.

The Coroner, after referring to the fact that there was nothing to show how the deceased came to be lying across thY line, found that the deceased died at the Wellington Hospital as a result of injuries sustained through being accidentally run over by a railway engine. No blame attached to the. driver, who had done everything in his power to avert the fatality. Mr. John Young, goods agent in the office of the Traffic Department,'represented the B.ailway. Department.