HYDE RAILWAY DISASTER

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIV, Issue 22723, 26 October 1943, Page 4

HYDE RAILWAY DISASTER

Alleged Manslaughter

Judging Speeds Of Trains

(N.Z.P.A.) DUNEDIN, Oct. 25. Tlie trial of John Patrick Aiphonsus Corcoran, aged 51. on a charge of manslaughter arising out of the railway accident between Hyde and Middlemarch on June 4 last was continued in the Supreme Court to-day before his Honour Mr Justice Kennedy. The jury visited the Hillside Workshops where an inspection of the engine and the wreckage of the train occupied the whole of the morning. "Are speedometers necessary to enable drivers to judge the speed?” the Crown Prosecutor. Mr F. B. Adams, asked Albert Stanton, railway locomotive foreman, Dunedin, when he continued his evidence. Witness replied that he would not say they were necessary but with highspeed trains they * would be an advantage. Mr E. J. Anderson ‘for the defence): Have you ever heard of a driver being brought before his superiors and reprimanded for making up time on a run?—l recollect one such case on the Central Otago line some months ago. Witness added that the position of the controls after the derailment indicated that the engine was not under steam at the time of the accident, and that it was what was known as a “drifting” engine. In reoly to Mr Adams, who asked whether a “drifting” engine could attain a speed of 50 miles an hour, witness said it would depend on the grade of the line. He added that ap 40 miles an hour he would expect an average driver to be able to judge the speed within a few miles an hour. The hearing was adjourned till to-morrow.