VERY DANGEROUS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 126, 24 November 1922, Page 4

VERY DANGEROUS

PORIRUA RAILWAY CROSSING

CORONER'S FINDING AT INQUEST.

After hearing the evidence yesterday at the inquest into the circumstances of the death of John Robert Canning in the railway collision at Porirua crossing on 18th October, the Coroner (Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.) said.: "The evidence shows that this is a particularly dangerous crossing, the line to the southward heing only visible from the road when a person is within fifteen yards of the crossing. I hope that steps will be taken immediately to improve it." Senior-Sergeant -Lander appeared for the police, Mr.'P. G. Taylor (Railway Traffic Inspector) for the Railway Department, 'Mr. A. Luke for Mrs. Canning (widow of deceased). Mr. F. E. Ward for Munt, Cottrell, and Co., and Mr. T. U. Ronayne for J. L. Patton, who was injured in the accident. Dr. P. J. Monahan stated that he was called to the scene of the accident. Deceased was lying 40 feet away from the crossing down the embankment. He was then dead.

James L. Pattern, who was a passenger on the lorry, stated that as they approached the crossing he said to the driver, "Be careful; this is the worst crossing on the line." Deceased replied that he knew this. Witness looked up and down the line, but saw nothing, and remembered nothing further until the time he came to his senses at the hospital.. The driver/was perfectly sober, and witness was a total abstainer. Witness stated that he saw no sign-post. There' was nothing to indicate danger. The lorry was travelling at a slow pace. James Barr, who was the engine-driver on the train, stated that he gave the first whistle half a mik from the crossing, and repeated it near the crossing, when the whistle was an unusually long one. The train was proceeding at the regular tion speed of 45 miles per hour. Witness was suddenly advised by the fireman to stop, and the impact occurred very shortly after he applied the emergency brakes. Otto J.- Hodgson, fireman' on the engine, corroborated this evidence. William G. Shock stated he was driving, some distance behind deceased's lorry, and heard the train whistle. .' He got to the crossing in time to see the result of the accident. He said he had had one. or two narrow "squeaks" on that crossing himself, and it was one of the most, dangerous he knew ■ . . :

The ; Coroner stated that, in his opinion, something better was required in the way of sign-boards at the crossing. The verdict was that death was due to fracture of the skull, sustained as the result of the lorry driven by "deceased being accidentally struck by a train on the Porirua crossing.