TUBE PORTER’S SACRIFICE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 January 1928, Page 12

TUBE PORTER’S SACRIFICE

SAFETY OF PASSENGERS. LONDON, November 23. Admiration was expressed by Mr Ingleby Oddie, the Westminster coroner, yesterday, for a porter on the Underground Railway, who, in his anxiety for the safety of passengers, jumped on a train which had started, closed the gates of the train platform, which was crowded, was swept into a tunnel, and received injuries from which he died. “This was a man with a conscience and a sense of duty,” said Mr Oddie. “He jumped on the train to try to save life. He did his duty and was doing nothing wrong.” The inquest was on James William Samuel Chambers, aged twenty-nine, a porter at Piccadilly Circus Underground station, who died in Charing Cross Hospital. Mr Hyman Fineberg, of East Dulwich, a passenger on the train, said that he saw Chambers jump on the train as it was moving with the idea of trying to close the gates. « “He tried to get off,” added Mr Fineberg,' “but must have lost his nerve as the train approached the tunnel. He came in contact with the tunnel entrance and fell on the track.” ’

Mr Fineberg, replying to Mr W. Carter, representing .the National Union of Railwaymen, said that the platform was crowded. Mr A. Eames (for the London Electric Railway Company) read a regulation issued to the company’s servants to the effect/ that “no servant . must jump on the steps or footboards or run alongside trains entering or leaving stations.” The coroner: Suppose a platform porter sees a. train leaving the platform with the gate open, and people standing on that platform, what is his duty? Mr M'Leod (the stationmaster: It really should be closed. Mr M'Leod agreed that occasionally trains started during the crowded hours with gates open.' The coroner: It would be dangerous., of course, for such a train to go into a tunnel with passengers not inside the gates?—That is so. Therefore, if a porter sees a passenger in such danger, it would not be unreasonable for him to try to close, the gates?—No, I suppose not. The coroner: That is what this man was doing. Mr Oddie, in his tribute to Chambers, said that they had all seen and admired the dexterity with which plat-, form porters dealt with crowds whiclu at times seemed almost uncontrollable. A verdict of “Accidental death while in the execution of his duty” was recorded.