SEACLIFF FATALITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22258, 10 May 1934, Page 7

SEACLIFF FATALITY

EVIDENCE OF , RAILWAYMEN (Special to Daily Tikis.) OAMARU, May 9. The inquiry into the circumstance* surrounding the death of Daniel O’Connell, who died at Palmerston after being foupd in a seriously injured condition on the railway line near Bead iff on April 1, was resumed at Oaiharu this morning before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., the depositions of the train driver and fireman being taken. Mr E. F. Havanagb represented the Railways Department. James Pike Pcneamene, engine .driver, said that on April 1 he was driving a passenger • train from Dunedin to Oamaru, when, about a mile north of Scacliff, as the train wa* going round a curve, he noticed a man lying, on the right-hand side of the track, his. head being about nine or .ten inches . away from the rails. Witness at once applied the emergency brake and stopped ■ the train. He found the deceased about three to five feet away from where he first saw him. The injured man, who was unconscious hut still breathing, was taken to Palmerston. The train was travelling between. 15 and 20 .miles per hour when he first saw the deceased, and, in, making an examination of the engine later, he saw no marks on it. As far as, he could see the. , whole ofthe front part of the engine cleared the deceased,,but he Would have been struck ■lij the trailing bogie, which extended a good distance on either'side of ttie rkils on this particular class of engine, After corroborative evidence had been given by the fireman, Erin George Black, the inquest was formally adjourned to Dunedin, atria" time and .place to be fixed.' 7 i Ta-vC’- .