HUTT DERAILMENT

Evening Star, Issue 25032, 26 November 1943, Page 2

HUTT DERAILMENT

INVESTIGATION OF SMASH (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 25. Tne Board of inquiry proceedings in connection witn the derailment of u tram from Upper Hutt on tlie morning of Novemoer 8, which resulted in tne deatli of "three persons and injury to 20 others, were continued to-day before Sir Francis Frazer (chairman), Mr John Wood (former engineer-in-ehief of the Public Works Department), and Mr H. L. Cole (secretary of the New Zealand Institute of Engineers). Hubert Garibaldi Stevens, assistant district engineer, dealt in his evidenco with variations of the track from the standard in the area of the accident. Ho stated that the variations were within practical working limits, and he coirld find nothing among them to account for the derailment.

Mr Watson: Is any officer of the department going to advance any theory of the possible cause of the derailment? Witness: 1 doubt if anyone can. The Chairman summed up for witness a sequence of events which might have occurred as the result of the variations of which witness had spoken.

Witness said he did not think those factors would cause the derailment. The Chairman: Adding all those factors together, you would not rule them out as contributing to the derailment? —No.

You could conceive of no other possibility?—No. The Chairman:' It seems to me that we have got to reach a conclusion by a process of exclusion. Edmond Hassett, an engine driver, said that on the day before the accident he felt a distinct lurch on the inside rail near where the derailment occurred. It did not cause him apprehension for the safety of the train, but he reduced speed to avoid breaking the engine spring hanger. Similar evidence was given by John Griffin, an engine 'driver. ENGINES BLAMED. Joseph Dominic Hooy, a ganger on the Silverstream section of the line, testified as to strain placed on the lino by the use of W.A.B. engines. On a recent Sunday, he said, he had found damage to curves on the line. The track had been pushed out of line and several fastenings were broken. He attributed this to excessive speed. He had taken steps to have the permissible speeds on the six-chain curves reduced to 15 miles an hour. To Mr Watson witness said that though he had been instrumental in having the speed restriction lowered, he would not say that a speed of 25 miles an hour was not safe over the curves. He placed all the blame for the trouble on the W.A.B. engines. " The sea wall is the proper graveyard for them." he declared.