TRAIN DISASTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 71, 21 September 1943, Page 7

TRAIN DISASTER

DRIVER FOR TRIAL

EVIDENCE ABOUT SPEED

P.A. DUJNfEDIN, September 20. The hearing of the manslaughter charge against John Patrick Alphonsiis Corcoran, driver of the engine in the Hyae'xail disaster, was resumed in the Magistrate's Court today, with still 26 witnesses to be called. After the evidence -had been heard the accused pleaded not guilty, and, reserving his defence, was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail was allowed in his own recognisance of £290 and two sureties of £100 each. Patrick McCarthy, draper, described the rough swaying of a carriage. He noticed that a woman passenger appeared frightened and was crying. Witness himself was uneasy. John Malachy O'Connell, farm hand, stated that after leaving Hyde the train picked up speed quickly. Just before the accident two suitcases fell from a rack. Witness's father died from injuries received. "I had the wind up," witness said. Other passengers of both sexes gave evidence on very much the same lines as to the speed of the train, particularly at corners. s Patrick Francis Kinney, farmer, Hyde, stated that his son, aged 19, was killed in the accident. Witness saw the train approaching from a paddock on his farm. The train was then on the down grade, but the engine's noise Was as though it were climbing. James Anthony Reynolds, assistant district engineer, Dunedin, produced calculations showing that at the maximum speed allowed the time that could be made up between Kokonga and Hyde was 6.3 minutes. By the times of departure recorded at the stations the actual time made up was 11 minutes, which, allowing that no time was lost between Hyde township and Hyde, would necessitate a speed of 38.3 miles an hour.