ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 12 May 1928, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

INQUEST 0N RAILWAY FATALITY. (BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) W AIM ATE, May 11. An open verdict was returned at the inquest concerning the death of George Leal, of Dunedin, who was killed at Studhohne Junction, on Wednesday evening bv being run over by, a train. Deceased, and a companion named John Craig, of Timaru, were walking across the rails from the Waimate train, which had been shunted .on to a branch line, to the platform on the west side, thinking that the approaching train was. going .on- the - east side platform. Instead,' the train switched on to a. loop line west of the platform, and deceased had not time to avoid being run over. Craig was knocked clear.

In his evidence Craig said that he knew passengers had to get out of the train when it arrived at the. sta.tipnf but he, with the deceased, stayed because the night was cold. The guard came through the carriages when the train ■ was on the branch line, but did not say they had no right to be there.. . The engine driver of the Oamaru train, Thomas O’Connell, said that at the curve the headlight would not show aloncr the line where the men were, but 'athwart it. He was travelling from ten to twelve miles per hour. If the yards had been brilliantly, lit it was possible he would have seen the men.

Michael Healey, guard of the Waimate train, said that there was a regulation requiring-a guard to. see that a. train was clear .before it was shunted from the platform. He looked through the carriage windows for passengers, and, seeing none, gave the all <clear .sign. He did not think the regulation required the guard to walk through the carriages to see if they were empty. ■The stationmaster at Studholme Junction said he interpreted the regulation to mean that a guard should see that the carriages were empty. Constable MoGettigan, who . was called to the scene of the accident, said the lighting of the station yards was very inefficient.

The jury returned an open verdict, adding a rider that the lighting system at the junction was inadequate. . ' Mr. McGonagle, railway traffic inspector, said the department had in hand the remodelling of Studholm© Junction yards. KILLED BY WAGGON FRAME. AUCKLAND, May 11. Edward Reid, aged _ about 45, a single labourer, was killed as the result of an accident at Newmarket railway workshops this afternoon: " Some steel waggon frames, each weighing two or three tons, were being unloaded by means of a, crane from trucks on a siding' alongside-; the engineering workshop. When one frame had been lifted clear, of the truck and was being swung .round preparatory to being lowered, one of the chains'slipped from the crane hook and. one-end of the frame crashed to the ground, pinning Reid beneath it. Death is considered to have been practically instantaneous. Another labourer named George Busby sustained a. severe scalp wound, but after an X-ray examination at the hospital was able to proceed to his home.