WRECK OF TRAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 67, 16 September 1943, Page 6

WRECK OF TRAIN

COURT PROCEEDINGS OPEN

p.A: DUNEDIN, This Day. The hearing of the charge of manslaughter against John Patrick Alphonsus Corcuran (51), driver of the train which was derailed near Hyde on June 4 with tragic results, 21 people losing their lives, commenced in the Police Court this morning before Mr. H. J. Dixon, S.M. Mr. E. J. Anderson represented the accused. Some bb witnesses will be called and the hearing may last three days. The early evidence was of a formal character, that of photographers, etc. James Goble, railway ganger, stated that the track was examined every morning by members of his gang, and he personally inspected it on May 27. On the morning of the accident there was no displacement of rail, which would put it out of alignment on the ten-chain curve behind the scene of the accident, but there was disalignment after the accident. That portion of the track was new, having been down not more than four years. The foundation was fairly good. A gap was found between the rails near bridge 50 after the derailment. It was not there on the morning of June 4, when nothing was wrong on the curve.

Oliver Joseph Doidge, district railway engineer, said he examined the track for anything that could have caused the accident and there was nothing. The track had been kicked out just where the .first marks of the derailment' occurred. This sharpened the curve, but would not be dangerous at the authorised speed. The line was out of cant, which disclosed that the curve had received a heavy impact. Primarily it would be caused by fast speed. In conclusion, the witness said: "I have no hesitation in saying that the track gave no indication Of being the cause of the derailment."