LEVEL CROSSING.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1882, 29 March 1913, Page 2

LEVEL CROSSING.

AND DEAF DRIVER. < A MARTON SENSATION. /Prose Association.—By Telegraph Wanganui, Yesterday. Mr T. H. James, a Wanganui architect (one time of Palmerston), and Mr James McCliesney, eontrac- , tor, of Mar ton, had a miraculous esj cape from being killed this evening ; while crossing the railway line at j Marton. The Main Trunk express ; dashed along at the same moment. An effort was made to run the trap clear, but the engine struck the horse, cutting it clear from the trap and killing it instantly. The occupants of the trap were thrown out. Mr McChesney was cut on the head and rendered insensible, while Mr James found himself alongside the metals with the carriage steps just clearing his body as they passed. He is suffering very much from pain. Mai ton, Yesterday. Further particulars of the accident show that the victims were driving to the When nearing the Main Trunk level crossing just north of the station, Mr James told Mr McChesney, who was driving, of the approach of the tnTin, but being deaf he evidently did not hear and continued. When a short distance away Mr James grabbed the reins in an attempt to pull the horse off the line, but he was too late, and | the engine dashed into the horse, tearing it away and throwing it fifteen yards from the cattle stop. Mr McChesney, who is an elderly man, was hurled on to the cattle stop on his head, and Mr James was thrown alongside the line, all the steps of the carriages passing over him as he lay alongside the rails. Only one shaft of the trap was broken. The horse was disembowelled and its hoofs torn away. It was killed instantaneously. Mr McChesney received a scalp wound five inches long from the top of his head to tne nape of his neck, and is also suffering from shock, and a slight kncck on the back of the head. He was able to proceed to Wanganui. Mr McChesney passed a fair night.