TRAINS’ SPEEDOMETERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 January 1944, Page 5

TRAINS’ SPEEDOMETERS

BOARD’S RECOMMENDATIONS

WELLINGTON, Jan. 19. A finding that the engine driver, Corcoran, was guilty of serious dereliction of duty, and that his conduct was the cause of the derailment, was given by the Board set up by the Minister of Railways to inquire into the Hyde railway smash. The Board is satisfied that the locomotive, cars, guard’s van and goods vans comprising the train were in good order and condition, before the derailment, and that the permanent way was well laid and maintained, and was perfectly safe to travel over at the speeds authorised in the .Department’s working timetable. The Board concurs generally in the recommendations regarding the installation of speed motors or speed recorders, made by the Boards of Inquiry that investigated the Ratana and Mercer derailments. “The evidence in the present case tof the attainment of excessively high speed does not, however, suggest that the disaster flight have been averted in the installation of either these- instruments. Effective attention to the indicator of a speedometer predicates normality on the part of observers. If a driver were in such a condition that he could entirely ignore, as the engine driver Corcoran evidently did ignore, the violent effect of very high speed on the riding of his engine, it is at least unlikely that he would take much notice of the behaviour of the speedometer.”

The Board says that there were circumstances, such as darkness and fog, in which speedometers might assist the judgment, which the driver himself must always exercise, but they could never replace his judgment. The Board also notes that any record given by a speed recorder was liable to obliteration in an accident itself. It is apparent that the practical value of such equipment might easily be overrated. The Board suggests the installation of speedometers-on all passenger train engines, after the war. It is not satisfied that the safety of I the public would be materially safeguarded by the more extended use of speed recorders, but suggests the use of some on selected engines, primarily to compile records of actual service performances, both as a check on existing timings and as a guide in revision of those timings for preparation of new ones.