PARAPARAUMU SMASH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 222, 19 September 1936, Page 11

PARAPARAUMU SMASH

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST SLIP SEEN TOO LATE CORONER’S COMMENT [ Per Frees Association. ] WELLINGTON, Sept. 18. ‘T am satisfied that there was no negligence on the part of the Kanway Department and that no blame attaches to the driver, who did everything possible to stop the train immediately the slip became visible. I congratulate the driver and fireman on escaping with their lives. Their escape was one of the most extraordinary features of the whole mishap,” said the coroner (Mr Gilbertson) when adjourning till October the inquest into the death of Arthur Frederick Bush, aged 80, retired carpenter, Blenheim. The medical evidence was that deceased died from pneumonia ana heart failure associated with shock, resulting from the accident to the Main Trunk express near Paraparaumu on August 30. The coroner said he would be interested to hear the evidence of William Howell, farmer, who attempted to stop the train, but who was indisposed and would not be available until early next month. His evidence, though interesting, would not, however, affect his opinion that neither the department nor the driver of the train had been in way negligent. Driver Wilsher, in the course of his evidence, said that visibility was bad owing to driving wind and rain. He saw the slip when rounding the bend. It was a train length away and the train was going at about 45 miles an hour. He immediately shut off steam and applied the emergency brakes. The distance was too short in which to stop the train. No departure was made from his usual vigilance when driving a train. Had the slip occurred on a straight portion of the road it could have been avoided because of the lookout he was keeping. He did not see a man running across the paddocks in an endeavour to stop the train. Had the man been on the railway he would have seen him as his whole attention was centred on the line. He had been familiar with the line for 25 years, and it was not a place where a slip would be expected.