THREE RECENT DISASTERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 14 June 1907, Page 1

THREE RECENT DISASTERS

t THE JUDGMENTS. A Londoai correspondent writes: — Judgment has just foejn pron<?un.cec^ in respect of three serious 'disasters which". !ajttracted nn •exceptional amouns of public attention. The .„ first is the railway accident on fchei North British ait Elliot Junobi'on, noar Arbroash, by which 20 persons lopt their lives. I related at ; n tho time tho circumstances of th(is a . mishap' which occurred during tho a great IChristmas blizzard,, . An engdiie-daiiver named Gourlay disregarded tho special and urgjont instructions which he had received as to- the careful working of his. trains and rtverrunning 1 a signal, he crash le cd into another train with fatal; results. Intoxication was at first Suggested as the exyilaiiation Of his reckless proceedings, but a wjave of sj-mpathy was set up toward' him through its being; apparently shown : ? that % his 'demeanour was due to tho 56 elTect of a single ,gilass of (spirits; 16 'given him while ho was weakened red dazed by / injuries. So al- <} 'though it was impossible to avert his conviction for the Scotch equil6 valent for manslaughter, he receive f. Ed a light sentence of five months, ;e which was reduced by Home Office 3- to threef Personally, I had maide, a enquiries of which the outcome dried up in a very painful degree 1- my sympathy with Gourlay, but I felt bound hi fairness to say nothn -ing even in New Zealand until the : ' Boand of Trade Inspector's report came oub. I view, however, what *' its purport' must be. It is .ijust X ■Out.nO'W, and is, as I oxpectod, to ( tho effect that Gourlay acted thus ,| strangely through being under tho ; influence of alcohol, which Hid been '. thought l«ss!y given ty various pasI sengers and others because t(ho ;, weather and he both were so cold! - Net result— loss 'of 'twenty lives, i ami cost of about £100,000 to the i North British Railway. These were a very expensive "nips"! 1 Next, the loss of the s.s. Berlin and 140 lives is declared to haivebeen due. to '''error of judgment on tho part of the master, Captiain * Precious, who in his desttro to gvt ' In punctually, toad put his steataer j at the waterway entrance to tho j HdOk of Holland, when this wasl , manifestly unsafe, and so had en--5 countered two successive soas, (which; ! rendered his vessel unmana'geaible, I and fluug ht-r bodily on the projecting end of the breakwater \with a terrible result, which is a matter > of history. Moral: Cautaina should : not be encouraged to makfe fastUor even punctal) rjtis, at. the riskfe, ol' 1 be made to feel ;that they hay? lost 1 caste if, through putting safety of ' ship passengers in tho lorefromi) they should happen to lose a little ■ ! time. [ Finally, there is the caiso ot thq 1 s.s. Suevic. iHcro tho facts were , too plain to admit of any dispute.

It is true some doubt i» left as to the effectiveness of the lights and OS 1 signals; at the IJzard, 'Hut in reality this mattered little, Foi" the hard ifact remained th<a,t tho captain of . the Suevlc had overrun his distance "vvrthout being awar*e of the fact, and had taken no adequate steps to make sure of his whereabouts, which in that locality unless -known .to absolute oci'tajinty, must needs bey a posit/ion of grave peril. However, in view of his admirable conduct afterward, Capj tain Jones is let ;off wifch throe! momths suspension. It was a mercy 1 . , and almost a miracle thlat frigih/t-i ■ful loss of human life was averted.