RAILWAY FATALITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23208, 30 November 1938, Page 16

RAILWAY FATALITY

MAN STRUCK BY ENGINE THE CORONER'S VERDICT " A fatality on the railway line at __ Otahuhu on November 11, when Mr. Charles Ernest Thorns, aged 63, a 'labourer employed at the Otahuhu railway workshops, was knocked down by ;s'the engine of a passenger train, was 'H the subject of a coroner's inquest ■? at Otahuhu yesterday. The district > corner, Mr. J." V. Lawes, presided, and Mr. Meredith represented the Pailway i' Department and Mr. Wood the rela- >- tives of deceased. Arthur Hayden Burton said he was i fireman on a locomotive engine en--8 gaged in shunting at Otahuhu station | aboufcr6.4s that morning. When pro--11 ceeding northward on the line he saw two men standing on the side of the 1 track about 100 yds south of the bridge 3 iftt Kaka Street. A south-bound pas- « isengeir iridic was ? passing" and witness il llieard' i&e ehgiho jvhistle sounded | loudly: Charles Henry Cogeins, fireman on fjjHi'he train that knocked deceased down, liaid jhd' saw two men step from behind the shunting engine 1 and step across the rails toiward the train, which did not stop at Otahuhu- station. Neither 5 of the men whom witness saw was look- | ing toward the approaching train. I i The driver of the train, «Walter 1 Henry Edward Clapp, said he did not p nee the men, as he was in his usual 3 position on the tight-hand side of the 2 fnginc-cab. The deceased had been on ? the Jefy of the track. s* Constable K. Hanna said he had I interviewed the man who was stated | to ham. been in deceased's company. •; He had denied being with him, and I stated that Thorns was? a little way uhead, and when nearing the track de- ; ceased went oufc of witness' sight. The i man had told witness that he did not «iee the train strike deceased. ■ The coroner entered a verdict of accidental death, due to injuries received irhen knocked down by the engine.