DEAD IN SIGNAL-BOX.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13242, 23 March 1907, Page 3

DEAD IN SIGNAL-BOX.

A TRAGIC IMIERUPTJOX TO TRAINS. A dramatic interruption of traffic on the Lancashne and YorKshne Railway main line neai Blackburn ocouned late on isatuiday night, i'ebiuary 2nd. Passenger tiauii going each' May found them&eive> hold up by dangei signals woiked lioni the layloi-siieet cabin' The neighbouring signal-boxe-> leponed themselves clear; tiiey had no telegraphic norices ol bleakdowns or of aecicenia along the lirie. And they could get no response to their ticktaLics at the Taylor-sti eet cabin. This being obviously the seat of the trouble, Inspector Briggs, of Blackburn, t:iimped along the ballast towards the box. Running up the wooden staiis, perh<ip> eager to discover the cause of an obvious deieliclion of duty, he opened the door anil paused on the thie<-hold in amazement, jhe signalman sat on the floor leaning against the levels—dead. He hid not been dead long. His body was still Mann. The entries in his signalbook show eJ that he had been doing lu< duty twenty minutes beiore he collapsed. He liad received lidins both ways to- his distance signal--, but not to the home points. Obviously seized with sudden iamtness, the man had left his led lights on, thus obvriting any disastei, and wi hout having strength to' warn 'the neighbouring .signal-boxes of his illness, had I sank down on the floor beside his level's. I and theie died quietly. If ever a man died at his po.s: that man did. Hi-> name, was Edward GreenhaJgh. He is said to have suffered frofli heait-disease for the last two years, but that is a matter which must be cleared up on inquiry. An ex inordinary case of medical conscience, diicetly beuing on such a fatality 'as the above, was 1 elated in the ''British Medical Journal'' last Deccember. It lepprted that .1 medical practitioner was attending a inihv.iy .'ignalman suffering from as.lißW.: ■*- "The attacks come on suddenly, and aie so severe that the patient falls on the floor struggling for ,\ire,ith, and is totally incapacitated for an hour or longer. He has ! not j'et lud an] at'ack in his Mgnal box, wheie he is on duly alone, sometimes for many hours alone. The man declines to infoim the railway company of his illness, thinking it would'result in his disclunge; or, at lea t, a reduction nf wages. The doc 1 or is afraid thai if he reports the case to the railway company. i\ho aie not his employers-, and .ire theiefoie not entit'ed to a lepoit from him, he will have to stand an action-for damages biought against him by the ,patienh' On the other hand, he fears "that unless hj? breaks the "--eat of professional secretaiy there will probably be a lailway accident, poisiblv on a large* scale, as many Londomjjid other expresses' traverse the line. I( < , ,On this pre:entmen of the facets, the "Bri ish Medical Journal!' made the <-on,,t----what astonisliing comment :—''ln our opinion, 'the circumstances, extreme 'though they be, cannot be held to, justify a bieach of "the law of professional secrecy " It remains to be made known to- what extent the knowledge of Eclward Greenhalgh's disease of the heart' Was known (1) to his medical man, and tlife Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway"Company. It U certain that on all railwaydines theie is a periodical examination of all men entiusled with the safety of the public. But it is equally ceitain that this examinn'ion fails in some Two lecbit lailway accidents point the moral in'\iegard to engine-drivers. The time his come, perhaps, when the public will insist upon no signal box being left in .'.he str'e charge of one man at any time, and jipon' the duplication of responsible drivers' on the -fast flying expi esses. * * i