"NOT EXCESSIVE"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19622, 4 May 1938, Page 12

"NOT EXCESSIVE"

WRECKED TRAIN'S SPEED OPINION OF GUARD MISHAP AT 20 TO 25 M.P.H IDENTITY OF "MAC" (Per Pross Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Giving evidence yesterday before the board of inquiry set up to invest)vestigate the cause of the Ratana railway disaster on 'March 20, the guard of the train, Mr. T. 11. White, said that the speed was not excessive. The train had reached a speed or about 40 miles an hour on the Ratana fiat, but the driver made the ordinary application of the Westinghouse brakes and reduced it to about 25 miles an hour before reaching the curve.

In the opinion of witness the locomotive left the rails at a speed of from 20 to 25 miles an hour.

Mr. F. C. Aickin, the railway law officer, who is appearing with Mr. H. F. O'Leary, K.C., for the Railways Department, intimated in the morning that it had been definitely established that the third man seen on the footplate at Palmcrston North was a yotith. who had handed the driver the train advice,

Mr. Aickin said before the adjournment late in the afternoon that he thought the identity of the man known as "Mac" might also be established. The man referred to as "Ted" by a witness had been located, and was now in Whangarei. It was thought this might be "Mac," but the opinion had not 'been confirmed.

The man called "Ted" had made a statement to the police and would be called to give evidence.

The inquiry is being resumed this afternoon, when the evidence of three >r four passenger witnesses will be heard.

Mr. G. Watson, counsel for the driver, Mr. E. Percival, said he had lot heard how Mr. Percival was progressing in hospital. Mr. Watson intimated that the counsel engaged on the inquiry had a number of other engagements this m""th.

The chairman, Sir Francis Frazer. said that when the present portion of the inquiry was completed, it might have to be adjourned until some time in June. Guard Cross-examined

Answering Mr. F. C. Aickin, the guard of the train, Thomas Henry White, said that if the train passed Turakina at 2.2 a.m., it would be three minutes late on its schedule. In answer to another question, Mr. White said that the train picked up three to four minutes in the disance between Marlon and Turakina. Mr. Aickin: To do that the train could not crawl?—No.

I put it to you that it would require to travel fairly quickly to do that?— Yes, at a fair speed. You must have some recollection of the trip between Marton and Turakina?—l have a recollection of the work I did between Marton and Turakina, but apart from that, I do not recollect anything particular about it. Witness said that he felt nothing out of the ordinary in the running of the train. If the train had been travpl ling fast round some of the curves, he. thought he would have noticed the lurching of the carriages. He did not remember the train passing Ratana, bu' he remembered the accident, of course Mr. Aickin: The accident must have caused you some thinking afterwards? Witness said it had ,although immedi. ately after the derailment his concern was for the passengers. He did no, spend any time thinking of the cause of the accident until some time afterwards.