CLAIM ON RAILWAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 186, 7 August 1936, Page 12

CLAIM ON RAILWAY

WOMAN FALLS IN CARRIAGE SEVERE JOLT ALLEGED DEPARTMENT DENTES NEGLIGENCE. A claim against the Crown for alleged negligence on the part of officials of the New Zealand Railways was made in the Supreme Court at Wanganui yesterday. Ada Isabella Chandler, aged 65, of Ward Street, Palmerston North, alleged that a severe jolt of a train being stopped at Marton Station on March 9, 1935, caused her to fall to the floor of the | carriage she was in and she was in- [ jured. The Railway Department denied negligence and called evidence to show that the stop had been purely normal. His Honour, Mr. Justice Osler, reserved his decision. Mr. G. McGregor, Palmerston North, appeared for Mrs. Chandler, the suppliant, and Mr. N. R. Bain represented the Crown (Railway Department). The claim was for £237 2s. Suppliant’s Evidence. Ada Isabella Chandler, widow, of Ward Street, Palmerston North, gave evidence to the effect that she travelled from Palmerston North to Marton on March 9, 1935. It was a mixed train, with a number of trucks. She was in a second class carriage which, she thought, was next to the trucks. There were two men in the I carriage when the train approached | Marton station. When the train reached the station it stopped and she got out of her seat and just moved into the aisle. The train came back with a terrible jolt. It threw her down on to the floor of the carriage. She fell on her left shoulder towards the engine. It was practically a double jolt. Witness had travelled in trains a good deal but she had never felt anything like it on any other occasion. One of the men said that a woman was down and to pick her up. A man did pick her up, took her to the platform of the carriage and a porter took her to a seat on the station .platform. The guard came along and asked how she felt. She replied, “Pretty badly. It was a bad jolt, wasn’t it?’” The guard replied “Yes, I suppose I will have to report this.” “I asked would the driver lose his position through this?’” witness went on. “I said I hoped he wouldn’t.” The guard said, ‘No, he won’t, but he will get a blister.’ ” Witness said that Dr. Dick attended her. About a week after she saw the railway officials at Palmerston North about it. She asked if they could do anything for her, pay for a doctor, or something like that. She was sent to Dr. Peach. Witness also wrote the Railway Department. Dr. Peach attended her for about a month, as far as she could remember, treating her left shoulder, left side of her head and her left knee. He sent her to the hospital for massage treatment for 10 days. She was able to walk about, but could not do anything as she could not move her arm. She had to get a woman to assist her in the house. The woman was paid for three weeks at 10s a week. She went later to Dr. Mitchell, who sent her to the hospital for 10 days’ treatment of her shoulder. She had further treatment later and altogether it totalled 30 days. After that her shoulder had improved but not such a great deal. She had been attending a chiropractor since August, until last Monday and he advised her that there was a bone pressing on a nerve and ! causing headaches. Her age was 65. (Prior to the accident, her state of (health was good. She submitted a (statement of accounts from medical (men, chiropractors and chemist, total- ( ling £53 6s. : To Mr. Bain: She was travelling to visit her daughter on a health trip. She would say that it was wrong if the man who sold her a ticket at Palmerston noticed that she was frail and looked to be in poor health. Witness knew something of the difference between mixed and passenger trains, but she had never experienced such a jolt as this. She was not sure where the carriage was. She did not think the two male passengers in it were injured in any way. She saw them get out of their seats before the jolt came. , Mr. Bain: How long an interval I elapsed between the time the train ’stopped and you felt this jolt?—Not