ALLEGED MANSLAUGHTER.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 20 November 1925, Page 7

ALLEGED MANSLAUGHTER.

THE! OPAPA CASE. HEARING OF EVIDENCE! CONTINUED. (BY TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION. I NAPIER, Nov. 20, The hearing of charges of manslaughter preterred against the driver (Frederick Lavin) of the engine of the train which met with the accident at Opapa cutting on September 22, was continued this morning. Charles France, a jockey, said he saw Marshall leave the train at Olinonclville, where he entered a- hotel, returning with bulges apparent under 'his coat. Marshall got on the platform of the front carriage, but did not enter the carriage. Marshall’s return was after the guard had twice blown his whistle, after which the train started. He estimated its speed down hill at from 45 to 50 miles per hour. It was so rapid that water from the engine was splashed on the front of the carriage. , David Wilson, a postal clerk, said that when the whistle blew the man who went to the hotel and returned left the front carriage and got on the engine. He could not recognise the man again. The train waited seven minutes at Ormondville, but the usual time was about three minutes. Wilfred Alexander, a railway engineer, said that when the express passed him at Hatuma three meip jvere in the cab, Marshall being the. third. A schoolboy said he saw a third man in the cab at Hatuma. He stood in the entrance and waved a hand to the other engine as the train passed. John Gardiner, borough inspector at Waipulairau, said that the train approached Waipukurau station more sjowly than usual. This attracted his attention. When the train cleared the crossing lie saw a man walking towards the hotel nearby. Matthew Goods, a railway porter, said that the train approached slower thqn usual. John Wright estimated the speed down the cutting at 60 miles per hour. Margaret Jackson, wife of the stationmaster at Waipawa, said that a third man was in the cab and was doing something with the coal when the train left the station. The man was Marshall. James ?S. G. McKenzie a boiler inspector, who was a passenger, said the s pee cl rvas excessive and Avas the cause of the accident. He did not think the brakes Avere applied. He helped to get Marshall out from the rear of the engine. Witness found in the cab the loAver portion of a broken beer bottle. Alexander Grey said that the track was all right when he inspected it on the same day prior to the accident.