SEQUEL TO ENGLISH EXPRESS DISASTER
MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE GROSS NEGLIGENCE BY DRIVER ALLEGED | Australian Press Assn. I LONDON, Nov. 20. As a. sequel to the Charfield disaster, Ernest Aldington, engine driver on the express, who had been employed by the company for 37 years, was charged with the manslaughter of Dorothy Burnell, the only one killed definitely identified. The prosecution alleged gross negligence amounting to recklessness because it was found that all the signals were definitely at danger. Three distance safeguards had been overlooked. The p”blic rightly expected some degree of safety. During a fog the driver’s duty in the event of the signals being invisible was to reduce speed. Mr Curtis Bennett, defending, said that the evidence of the driver and fireman was emphatically that they saw that a distant signal was in their favour. It was cabled on October J 4 that a mail train and a London-Midland freighter collided at Charfield, Gloucestershire. The mail train caught fire and seven people were killed and many injured. The disaster occurred at 5 o’clock in a dense fog.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19281122.2.62
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 277, 22 November 1928, Page 7
Word Count
177SEQUEL TO ENGLISH EXPRESS DISASTER Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 277, 22 November 1928, Page 7
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Wanganui Chronicle. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in