DERAILMENT OF EXPRESS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19124, 19 September 1936, Page 15

DERAILMENT OF EXPRESS

NO NEGLIGENCE EVIDENT OPINION OF CORONER ENGINE DRIVER'S STORY (Per Tress Association.) WELLINGTON, this day, "I am satisfied that there was no negligence on the part of the Railway Department and that no blamo attaches | to the driver, who did everything possible to slop the train immediately the slip became visible. 1 congratulate the driver and the fireman on escaping with their lives. Their escape- was one of Hip most extraordinary features of the whole mishap." said the coroner, Mr. t'-. 'Gilbertson, to-day, when adjourning till October the- inquest into the death oi Arthov Frederick Bush, aged 80 years, a retired carpenter, of Blenheim. The medical evidence was that the deceased died from pneumonia and heart failure, associated with shock, resulting from the accident to the Main Trunk express near Parapnraumu on August 30. The coroner said that he would he interested to hear the evidence of William Howell, the fanner who attempted to stop the train, but who was indisposed and who would not he available until early next month. His evidence, though interesting, would not, however, affect the opinion of the coroner that neither the department nor the driver of the train had been in any way negligent. The driver. Wilsher, in the course of his evidence, said the visibility was had owing to a driving wind and rain. Ho saw the slip when, rounding the bend. It, was then a train length away and the train was going at about 45 miles an hour. lie. immediately shut off steam and applied the emergency brakes, but the distance was too short, in which to stop the train. No departure, was made from the usual vigilante when driving the train. Had the slip occurred on a straight portion of the road, it could have been avoided because of Ihe lookout he was keeping.

He did not see a. man running across Hie paddocks in the endeavour to stop the. train. Had a man been on the railway, ho would have seen him as his whole attention was centred on the line. He had been familiar with the lino for 25 years and it' was net n place where a slip might he expected.