HYDE DISASTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 September 1943, Page 4

HYDE DISASTER

HEARING OF MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE AGAINST ENGINE-DRIVER. LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEER’S EVIDENCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, This Day. Lower court proceedings in the manslaughter charge against John Patrick Alphonsus Corcoran, driver of the train derailed near’ Hyde, with heavy casualties, on June 4, were continued this morning. George Stewart James Read, Assistant Locomotive Engineer, Dunedin, stated that an examination of the locomotive and tender after the accident revealed nothing likely to have caused the mishap. The same applied to the carriages and van. Every locomotive was inspected weekly, and all trains, before their departure, were carefully examined. A further examination, in the case of Central Otago trains, was made at Ranfurly, and it was the guard’s duty to make a brake test before leaving Cromwell and the duty of the' driver to make a thorough test of the engine before the day’s work. If a train was running late, a driver was expected to recover lost time as far as possible, but in no case to exceed the speed limits imposed. Witness had made calculations on the question of overturning speed on curves of 9.88 chains, with a cant of 23 inches, and on curves of 7.33 chains, with a cant of 2 3-8 inches, these representing the cant of the 10 chain curves in the present case. In the first case, the lowest speed at which a derailment was likely would be under 59 miles an hour and in the second case 50.4 miles an hour. Witness would not expect overturning at any lower speed unless there was a serious defect in the engine or tender.