RUN DOWN BY THE EXPRESS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 8137, 22 January 1895, Page 3

RUN DOWN BY THE EXPRESS.

The express from Christchurch to-day had to pull up soon after passing Selwyn, having run down a man on a road cross*

ing. The train was going about 20 miles an hour, when two men were seen on the oossing. One of them got out of the way, but the other did not appear to try to do so, and he was run into an<j carried some chains on the cow-catcher. The train was of course pulled up as quickly as possible, and the man was found to be considerably shaken and unconscious, though it seemed no bones were broken. He was put into the guard’s van, and DrKingdon, an Australian visitor bound for Winchester, took charge of him as far as Ashburton,where the patient was handed over to Dr Leahy and taken to the hospital. The man was recognised as William John Martin Smith, who had been convicted and discharged from custody at Christchurch on the day before, on a charge of attempting to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Avon on the 14th inst. It is stated that this man’s companion was too much under the influence of liquor to pull his mate out of the way of the train, and the probability is that both were in pretty much the same state. Smith was fortunate in escaping being entirely smashed up.