A FATAL COLLISION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20291, 27 December 1927, Page 10

A FATAL COLLISION.

TWO MEW KILLED. CAR CAUGHT ON WAITAHUNA CROSSING. A shocking’ railway crossing fatality occurred at Waitahuna yesterday morning, two young men—Arthur M'Alister M'Gookin, aged '3O years, of Dunedin, and Joseph Given Hamilton, aged ? years, of Christchurch—being killed outright. The two unfortunate men had been staying over the week-end with Ernest Samuel Blair, and with a few other men were going out that morning on a fishing trip to Waipori. The railway crossing was only a few chains from Blair’s residence, and M'Gookin and Hamilton, starting off in a three-seater Dort car, were dead men even before their comrades had begun 'to follow. How they failed to see the oncoming train is a mystery, but it is thought that there was something wrong with the oil feed, as both men appeared to have their heads down as they approached their death. The engine was heard to give two or three blasts of the whistle a£ it neared the crossing, and then, just before the catastrophe, there was a, violent shriek of warning. It was only when the last whistle sounded that the two men must have realised their terrible doom, for they made one final instinctive effort to jump clear, but too late. The engine caught them as they rose to their feet and the car was carried on to the cattle stop, where it was smashed to pieces. Hamilton was extricated from the wreckage of the car, gnd his companion was found under the second truck of the train. Both were past aid. There is a good deal of speculation as to the reason why the two victims failed to see the train, and the general opinion is that they had some trouble, with their engine, the noise of which must have drowned the sound of the train. The crossing is not regarded as a dangerous one, for motorists have a comparatively clear view of the line, a fact which makes the accident the more difficult to explain. An inquest was opened at the Police Station, Waitahuna, in the evening, before Mr William Cameron, J.P., and four jurymen. The proceedings were adjourned till Friday afternoon at Lawrence.