TRAMWAY SMASH.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1846, 14 January 1920, Page 7

TRAMWAY SMASH.

THE WELLINGTON ACCIDENT.

EVIDENCE AT INQUIRY.

Press Association. WELLINGTON, January 13. The inquest regarding the death of the victims of the tramway smash on January 3 was continued to-day. Andrew Cooper, motorman, said he was driving the car which was immediately behind car 105 on the run to the city. Witness stopped at the mouth of the tunnel while ear 105 stopped at the outside. On the way down Pine Street he saw the conductor of 100 trying to pull the trolly pole down and apply the handbrake. The car slackened at Austin Street but went off with 'a jump just after. It was not usual for the motorman to use the handbrake of an airbrake ear. The airbrake was simpler to use than the magnetic brake. He confined most of his. attention to his own car. In order to keep his passengers quiet he shut the door of his own car and told the people to keep quiet as everything was all right with him. It was a motorman's duty actually to come to a dead stop at every compulsory stop. He did not suggest that this was done by car 105 at Austin Street. To Mr 6'Shea: Car 105 drifted across Austin Street at about three miles an hour. It pulled up almost at Austin Street. If he had come to almost a stop at a compulsory stop and the conductor rang two bells and there were no passengers in sight he would feel justified in letting his car drift by instead of coming to a dead stop. Witness was asked by Inspector McIlveney how he could explain the action of car 105 in, according to his own statement, slackening down at Austin Street, when other evidence showed that the motorman was at, that time lving down and no one was at the wheel. "His reply that the airbrake having presumably been applied at the tunnel the car eased off automatically did not satisfy the inspector or the Magistrate. Witness then pointed out that it was possible that deceased Evans, in endeavouring to assist the motorman, knocked off the airbrake, causing the ear to bound ahead at a greatly increased pace. Touching this theory the Magistrate pointed out that the testimony of witnesses went to show that up to this stage there was no. one on the platform except the motorman and he was lying down.

Eecalled by Mr O'Shea the witness A. J. Hunt said that the fact that car 105 stopped immediately on the eity side of the tunnel was fixed in his mind because of an argument ho and his friends had about a mirror at the entrance to the tunnel. The car stopped there only two or three seconds. Walter Johnson, a little boy residing with his parents at 15 Pirie Street, said that he was leaving his house when car 105 was descending the incline from above Austin Street. He saw there was no motonnan on the car, and said to Mrs Avery, who was with him, "Look! There is no motorman on the ear." The car was travelling faster than at an ordinary rate. The next thing he saw was a girl jump off it or fall out. The car was going faster then. He saw it turn over at the corner. It did not pull up at the compulsory stop at Austin Street. Mrs Edith Mary Avery gave similar evidence. She first saw the car at Austin Street, then the boy drew he? attention to the absence of the motorman. As the car went past she saw the motorman tying on the front platform. The car was going rather fast, faster than usual. The conductor was on the back platform standing with his arms folded. Witness, to attract the attention of the conductor, screamed out and waved her arms, but the car was making so much noise she did not think he could have heard her. She did not see the conductor apply the brakes at all during the whole time ' the car was under observation. i To Mr O'Shea: The car seemed to take a sudden jump forward about five doors from Austin Street downward. The inquiry was adjourned till tomorrow. TO-DAY'S EVIDENCE. Press Association. WELLINGTON, January 14. The inquiry was resumed this morning. Frederick Ernest Quayle, the conductor on the tram which was wrecked, said he joined tho service a month before the accident. He was previously a motor car driver and served with the New Zealand forces on Gallipoli and in France for over two years. He was not wounded and had not suffered from shell shock, but had suffered from enteric fever and had been invalided home on account of pleurisy. He was discharged in September, 1917, as unfit for further active service. Before joining the tramway service he drove a motor lorry at Palmerston North. He had not suffered from any nervous complaint and had been passed medically fit by Dr McEvedy on joining the tramway service. He was then placed in charge of a car as conductor. He had had no previous experience and received his training as a conductor on different runs, including instruction as to how to manipulate tho handbrake at the rear of a ear, so as to apply it in case of emergency. His period of instruction was for four days, eight hours a day. Before going as a conductor he passed an examination, but did not go out on a car for the purpose of the examination. He was then sent out on the Kilbirnie and Lyall Bay trip. The only instruction he received was that in case of emergency he should apply the handbrake. At his request the motorman had shown him how to operate the magnetic and airbrakes.