CROSSING FATALITY.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 18986, 1 July 1933, Page 4

CROSSING FATALITY.

. • FOUR PEOPLE KILLED. EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST. . • SURVIVORS CANNOT REMEMBER. (By Telegraph.—press Association.) • WELLINGTON, Friday. .. An inquest was held to-day in connection with the level crossing ac ■cident in which four people lost their jives at Porirua on May 21. ‘ The evidence showed that the car attempted to cross the lino when the red signals were flashing. The driver, Stanley Lincoln, and the >only- surviving adult passenger, Harry Holroyd, said-they remembered nothing about the accident. ‘ ' < The engine-driver, giving evidence, .said the headlight of the engine was burning brightly. He sounded a long blast on the whistle 300 yards from the crossing and another when fifty yards away. “Happened In a Flash.” . .Kenneth Brennan, tablet porter at Porirua, said there was a north-bound train standing in the loop. He saw the lights of four cars standing on the north side of the crossing, but did not seq any on the south side. Next he saw a car come right on to the crossing, when the train was practically'on the cattle-stop. He estimated the speed of the car at 25 miles an hour, Everything happened in a flash.. Witness saw the warning danser signals working. They were worked by approaching trains. The crossing was well lit with floodlights.

, Witness also said it was a practice to stop tho warning signals if there was a ■ north-bound train waiting in the siding, provided there was no south bound train coming in. He said the signals had been turned off when the north-bound train was waiting, but they were turned on automatically by the south-bound train when it was about half a mile from the crossing.

The Coroner said he would give his finding next week.