SHUNTING ACCIDENTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20354, 10 March 1928, Page 12

SHUNTING ACCIDENTS.

A CORONIAL INQUIRY. DANGERS OF PRESENT SYSTEM ALTERATIONS RECOMMENDED. (Special to Daily Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, March 9. Searching questions regarding the methods of shunting used by tho New Zealand Railways Department wore asked at the Coroner's Court to-day when tho coroner (Air E. I). Mosley, &.M.) continned an inquest concerning the death of Horace Gordon Grose, a shunter, who died after a mishap at the new Middleton marshalling vards on February 17. Mr A. T Donnellv appeared for tho Railways Department; Mr C. S. Thomas for the Shunters’ Council; Air AV. F. Tracy for the relatives of the deceased, and _Mr S. Schofield for the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. Frederick Ernest Taylor, who was in charge of tho shunting gang, stated that the wagon concerned in tho fatal;!v an iron L. A. loaded and sheeted, tho load being about 18in above the top. The L. A. was the highest open truck used by the. Railways Department. lie tested the brake before letting tho wagon run clown the hump. He did not See wnat happened. . T , , To Air Thomas: Laid a truck was actually approaching a man he did not know whether the brako was at the fionfc or the rear. Witness had seen cases in which trucks were travelling at a speed which ma.de it difficult to brake them Mr Thomas: There have been somo trucks that have got away completely and crashed?—Yes. Tho shunter in at Middleton has no control of speed?—None. Is it possible when two trucks are rolling as one that tho two brakes may be in the middle ?—Yes. . And to stop those two the shunter would have to jump bitween them?-—-Acs. In reply to tho coroner. Witness said the handrail should be free. In the At. wagons thor® was no handrail at ciU, Dr N. K. Cotter said that Grose was Fullering from a double compound fracture of both legs. Whoa witness examined him ho was conscious, lie was given a blood transfusion and both legs were amputated. Ho rallied slightly, but soon went down, and died about an hour tuleiwarris. Tho cause of death was heart failure following hemorrhage and shock caused bv the accident. Felix W. G. Riley, « shunter, stated that Grose swung on to the front end of tho wagon. lie had only one foot on the brake and his hand seemed to slip downwards. Ho appeared to know that ho was Flipping, and it looked as if ho tried to throw himself backwards. Then his foot seemed to slip off the brake and he toil, the wheels going over both legs. The handrail was obscured except for about 6m at the bottom. Witness was at tbc points and had to pull out the brakes. Mr Thomas; What do you consider the top sneed a truck just off a train would reach* if allowed to go straight on down those lines without braking?—l show id say ever 15 miles an hour. . Have yon ever seen men racing lull out for isvds to 20yds and then grabbing at a tarpaulin and jumping on to a brake?—Yes. Have you seen men doing that and having to jump between two trucks?—Yes And there*have been cases in which when yon have let a truck go and have shouted a warning to the men below they have taken a. risk and stopped the truck?—Yes. To Mr Tracy witness said that the id huger was that the speed of the truck could not bo controlled after it left the hump, , To tho Coroner; Witness sa;d that tno wagons were braked by jumping on the brakes. The brakes operated by the weight of a man’s body. There was nothing to stop a man from slipping, but the heel of bis boot. It would* not have been safe for Grose to try and brake the wagon by hand. r William Downey, a shunter, said that Grose ran alongside the wagon, grabbed at tho tarpaunn with his left hand, and jumped on to the brake with.-his left.foot. Then ho grabbed at the tarpaulin with his light liand, seemed to slip, and appeared to° try and throw himself outwards as he fell. A . Air Donnelly asked tho coroner to dofane the limits of the inquiry. It seemed to be as to tho propriety of tho practice of allowing a handrail to be wholly or partly covered by a tarpaulin. In this instance that was what seemed to have been the cause of the accident. Tho Coroner: Undoubtedly. I have formed that opinion, subject to .any other evidence that might be given after seeing the trucks in action. I am of the opinion that there is another question—that of tno control of trucks from the hump. The Coroner said that he was not sitting to inquire into the methods of the Railways Department, but he was not going to shelve any questions. With kis own eyes he had seen trucks in the yard travelling at Id to 13 miles an hour. Air Donnelly submitted thc-j the propriety of the department in allowing the trucks to travel at that speed was outside the present inquiry. John Alexander Teague, a railway employee, gave evidence that between Christmas, 1327, and tho present _timo three men had been killed by leaning brakes, and one man bad been injured badly. Samuel Ernest Fay, operating equipment os-istanc on the New. Zealand railways, &aid that ho hud had- 15 years practical experience in England, Franco, Canada, and South America, and had studied the conditions m other countries. The hump system at Middleton was modelled on the meet up-to-dato system in England. At a conference held in 1925 it was unanimously agreed that hump shunting was tho safest and most economical in existence. Witness had no objection to the New Zealand standard wagon with a brake on the end A brake could not bo put on tn_ side. The danger was that shunters wou « ride on sidebrakes and would meet wnth injuries going into sheds and platform., and not boinf used to that method of operation. So far as hs know no objection had been made on behalf of the shunters to the brake on the front of trucks. The alteration of the braking system to nut m an enc.no<?nd crake would cost about .M.000.U1A., and from his experience ho considered it Mr Th-omas: Do you agree that there should be a handiail with a hadm o brake?—Well, it is an assistance certainly. •Phn brake handle is used as a step, anti ' e man must havl southing, to hold on to when he jumps on to a bruKO to brake a * l Do you agree that he must have something to hang on to ? —I don t agree tha the brake should be used as a toot brake. It is a hand brake. Do you think that a man can nm acioss Middleton yards when a truck is goni., at 12 miles an hour, lean over, and put on a brake?— There is no necessity. Ihey have shunting slipper b™ k ff- , , , The Coroner commented that toe biitmt inn slipper brake was very heavy for men to” carry across the yard. . “A man would have to be a combination of Sandow and Nurmi, said Air said that there was no reason rAy men should ride on tho brakes; but it was the general practice, and he did not know of a single instance where the department had complained of this practlC\fr Thomas: Braking as they do without a handrail would be unsafe ?-Y«. And with a handrail covered by a tarpaulin it is unsafe?—lt is. It should not be done. , ~ ~ , And a man would not know if the guard covered or uncovered until he came toTuse it?—That is so. Then I put it to you that there must be something wrong with the system or the administration when _ handrails are allowed to be covered? —No. It cannot be changed. The Coroner; I am quite sure you have sufficient intelligence to suggest a method of sheeting, those wagons and leaving tho handrails free?—No. I r.m sorry I cannot. „ , _ -I 1 The Coroner: But I saw it. It can be done, and it must be done. “The atmosphere has been cleared to a certain extent,” said the Coroner, “but there are two very important points to b=> considered —the necessity for leaving the handrails on the trucks clear, ami, escondly, that the system ot shunting at Middleton yards be improved so that reasonable control of the trucks can be exercised without endangering human stressing the absolute necessity for having the handrails clear, the Coroner continued: “I am satisfied that the offing of tha Railways Department realise

the danger that exists, and their duty is to minimise this danger. If the department does not take steps to provide that the rails shall be left clear I am sure that the public, which has a vast sense of fairness, will insist upon immediate action to remedy the existing state of affairs.” There was, he said, something wrong with the system of braking trucks at the Middleton yards, and the department could he relied upon, he thought, to minimise the risk to shunters. They should have the very best conditions under which to work. The Coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, and added the following riders; — “'That the safety of shunters makes it necessary that tarpaulins on trucks shall be so tied as to leave the handrail free in order that it can be used for the purpose for which it is intended—to safeguard life.” ” That in the opinion of the coroner the system of shunting at Middleton yards should bo improved so that reasonable means of control can be used without endangering human life."