A FATAL CHASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 56, 8 March 1937, Page 7

A FATAL CHASE

LIFE FOR CANARY ,

MAN MANGLED BY TRAIN

(From "The Post's" Representative)

SYDNEY, February 27.

William James Flynn an old age pensioner, 75 years of age, lost his life in chasing a canary which had escaped from its cage at his home, at St. Peters, an inner Sydney. suburb.. -Watched by his wife, Flynn pursued the canary across the railway line, at the rear of his house, avoided one train, but leaped in the path of another travelling in the opposite direction> His" wife was spared the ordeal of.seej iqg him actually struck, but when the first1 train sped by, she was horrific?;? to see that her husband was beneath the second. ....... .'.

Flynn and his wife were particularly fond of their canary, and the old man daily fed it and cleaned the cage;. On Thursday morning he went about his usual task. The chirping bird, ..which had been flitting about the cage, sudi dently darted through the open door: In alarm, Flynn, who was active for his age, pursued it, and Mrs. Flyiin anxiously watched the chase. ,-The bird circled for a few moments, then perched on a fence. Flynn cautiously approached, but his pet flew across the. railway line. Flynn climbed the fence and leaped across a culvert on to the lines, his.eyes fixed on. the stillflying bird. He did not at once notice the approach' of two trains travelling in opposite directions. ' He saw'one train just in time, and. jumped out of I the way as it thundered, past. .. - Mrs. Flynn, standing in the backyard, had been a terrified witness of this incident. She was unable to. call out; even if she had, her voice would have be'en drowned by the noise of the trains. Flynn had leaped in the path of the other train. He saw his danger too late and was unable to scramble away. The. train passed over him. Mrs. Flynn did not realise at first thai her husband had been killed. "Is lip badly hurt?" was all she could say to the ambulance officers and. police who were quickly summoned to the scene. • ■ -