BUS STRUCK BY TRAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19502, 4 December 1926, Page 15

BUS STRUCK BY TRAIN.

THE DRIVER AT FAULT. COURT IMPOSES PENALTY. SHOULD HAVE STOPPED AT LINE. Charges of attempting to pass over the Church Street railway crossing at Southdown when the line was not clear and failing to stop before going 011 to the line were preferred against E.' W. Oliff, bus driver, employed by the Passenger Transport Company, in the Police Court . yesterday. Mr. Gould appeared for the Railway Department, and Mr. Sullivan for defendant. The bus which defendant was driving collided with a tram bound from Otalmhu to Auckland at the Church Street crossing and was considerably damaged. The driver, stoker and guard of the train gave evidence that a passenger train was coming from Auckland, and that defendant stopped his bus until 't had just passed. He then / accelerated and struck their train. The headlight of the engine was burning and the whistle had been sounded before the train reached the crossing. The bus contained a party on its way to the Otahuhu Orphans' Club. Thomaii Lawrence Griffen, one of the passengers,, said that when the bus approached the crossing it slowed down, but did not stop. This wac. a matter of comment among passengers, as it was considered! the driver should have stopped when he noticed the out-bound passenger train. The driver appeared to accelerate just a:s the passenger train cleared the crossing and the ne;;t thing they knew was that the bus had struck the Auckland-bound goods train. Witness himself had net seen this train before the impact. Another passenger who had been sitting in the right-hand corner of the rear of the bus said he saw the incoming train and heard it whistle. The bus struck the engine, and one of the wheels of the bus was knocked off. The Magistrate, Mr. Hunt: It is lucky there were not a few more orphans. Mr. Sullivan said the night was dark. The passenger train lit up the line temporarily, and then left it in darkness. The bus driver did not see the lights of the incoming train, nor did ho hear its whistle. Defendant, in evidence, said he had been driving for 12 months on that routs. As he approached the crossing he went' down on to low gear, which. on that particular maka ot bus was almost equivalent to stopping. He looked up and down the line and saw no light to the south. He heard a whistle, but thought it was that of the passenger train just clearing the crossing. Two passengers in the bus said they had seen no lights and had heard iao whistle. One, Mrs. Margaret Turner, said that Oliff was always a careful driver. " This man is the driver of a public conveyance," said the magistrate, " and as such he is required to take the greatest possible care and to keep a sharp look-out. Because two or three passengers saw nothing that does not mean there was nothing there to see. Passengers may be looking anywhere, but the driver should be looking where he is going and where , any other vehicles are going. No doubt ho was misled by the other train, but he must have seen the lights of the engine had he looked down the line. The law required him to stop, and he did not stop. He will be fined £2 10s, with costs." CROSSING BEFORE ENGINE. FINE IMPOSED IN HAMILTON. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] HAMILTON. Friday. A Te Kuiti resident, A. Haydeu, was fined £2 and was ordered to pay £3 10s costs in the Hamilton Magistrate's Court to-day for crossing the railway line at Te Kuiti when the limited express was approaching. Defendant admitted lihe breach.