SHUNTING FATALITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19221, 9 January 1926, Page 11

SHUNTING FATALITY.

DEATH OF MR. JAMES MACKAY.

CASE OF PURE MISFORTUNE.

[BT TELECfftAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] HAMILTON. Friday.

'At\ inquest concerning the death of the shunter, Mr. James Mackay, who was killed through being run over at Frankton yesterday, was held to-day, before Mf'. R. F. Haycock, J.P., acting coroner, and a juiy of four. James Graham Campbell, engine driver, said he was driving the train which ran over deceased. Deceased gave the signal to move, and stepped on to a truck as the engine started. After going a short distancei witness heard the fireman call "whoa" sharply, and he applied the emergency brakes. He saw deceased lying on the opposite side of the train to that on which he boarded it. The train was moving four or five miles an hour when the accident occurred. It was the slack period of the day, and there was no undue haste in the shunting. Frederick Christianson, fireman on the train, said he saw deceased fall beneath the last two trucks. Witness shouted and the driver immediately put the brakes into emergency. It was apparently one of those unfortunate accidents that happen occasionally. Robert Bolton Greaves, a shunter, said deceased was an experienced man. Witness was riding on the train. He felt a bump and saw dece<»sed roll over. The train stopped dead immediately. Tho jury returned a verdict that deceased died from shock and hemorrhage following injuries received through being run over by a truck. No blame was attachable to anyone.