AN ALARMING ACCIDENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6064, 25 April 1881, Page 5

AN ALARMING ACCIDENT.

TWELVE PERSONS INJURED. : [BY TELECEAI'II.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] . Donk.din, Sunday. , Ax accident of a most alarming character, resulting in the injury of twelve persons, one of whom is almost certain to die, occurred at half-past eleven last niglit on tlie Roslyn tramway. Roslyn is a suburb situated on the hills above Dunedin, anil the tramway was started about four months ago. It is worked by an endless wive rope to which the 1 carriages are attached' by gripper carriages, ) which are provided with a brake supposed to j be powerful enough to bring them to a stand- ; still whenever applied. Last night the last car 3 started up Rattray-street for Roslyn, and had proceeded some six hundred yards up the hill—the gradient of which is about one in sixteen—when something went wrong with the gear. The general statement is that the man in charge of the brake put it off instead of on, and before lie could rectify his mistake, the carriage commenced to run clown the hill, attaining such a speed as it rushed down the incline that all efforts to stop it by means of the brake were feeble. 3 Three men—Barrett, Spiers, and Stewart— * jumped o'T, but the rest were unable to get t out of the car, which reached the terminus t line at a fearful rate of speed, and broke through the heavy woodwork and three feet of the metal road, and turned over on its ' side. At one moment it appeared probable that it would dash across footpath into c the Crown Hotel. There was plenty ol ' assistance at hand. The carriage was righted, and the injured men removed to the Sham:J rock Hotel. • r■ ? """J ■■ Z The following is the list of those injured : —Andrew Thomson. (Thomson, Strang and Co., drapers), cut and brui.w-l ; John Strang, e bruised and cut about the face; William a Stewart or Steward, bruised about the legs; Y Thos. Harvey, labourer, cut and bruised ; Rosamond Johnson, slightly bruised ; Will' liam Pearce, bruised and cut about the head ; Leckie, badly bruised and a long time insen- ! sible ; I'earse and Clerk, bruised, cut, and ' severely oimkun ; T. Mcintosh, bruised and i- ; i\ Jrianua, n..i. -r. < Conway, bruised ; J. Garrett, skull dread- I r fully fractured, case considered hopeless; n Hislop, cut and bruised. The three men p : wlio jumped off fared the worst, and were cut and greatly smashed about. The s sufferers were at once attended to by Drs. ,e JJrown, Fergusson, Dezouche, Burrows, and McDonald. All but Garrett are doing well, e