SOCKBURN SMASH.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19957, 18 June 1930, Page 10

SOCKBURN SMASH.

WRECKAGE CLEARED FROM LINE* FOUR FUNERALS TO-DAY. After great difficulty gangs of railway employees were able yesterday to clear tho embankment on the north side of tho Sockburn crossing of tho debris with which it was encumbered by the smash of Monday evening. One of tho tracks was clear seven hours after tho accident, and Ihe other track was cleared at 5.30 last evening.

The funerals of four of the victimß are to he held to-day.

Many people went to Sockburn yesterday to inspect the scene and to watch the work of repair. Before noon, the wreckage of tho motor-car was hoisted on to a lorry find removed. An unpleasant part of the work was the sorting of partly-burned sheep carcases from the gonoral debris. Ultimately, tho capsized tender was replaced on the rails by two cranes and towed back to Addington apparently little tho worse for the smash. The piled wreckage of trucks and engine was cleared to either side of the double track and in the afternoon the gangs started to remove piecomeal tho engine and its telescoped cabin.

Light on Engine Tender. Tho damaged part of the further track was relaid on the evening of the smash. Tho line where tho locomotive fell was twisted, and there were many gaping holes between tho two sets of rails. The cattle-stop was badly smashed, and the concrete at tho side of it was pulverised. Mr Penn, together with tho District Engineer (Mr J. McNair) and his assistant (Mr H. C. Lusty), again supervised the work on the Department's behalf. The train services on tho south track were resumed shortly after midnight on Monday, said Mr Penn. Ho said definitely that, although the engine travelled tender-first, there was a fairly good light in front, which could be seen for some distance, certainly by the cardriver had he looked. There waß no question, he thought, that the accident was caused by tho driver either not seeing or disregarding the "stop" signal. The removal of the engine was the heaviest task in the clearance, said Mr Penn, but he expected the work to be finished by .this morning. How Crash Occurred.

That Balph Smith, the driver, may not have seen the crossing-keeper's signal when ho came quickly on to pass a yellow car which was halted on the opposite side of the line was the suggestion of a third eye-witness, Robert Cooke, who was driving a truck towards Christchurch. When Mr Cooke saw the green light, he stopped his engine and saw tho train coming down the line. The Austin car, coming on at about 20 or 25 miles an hour, was caught by the engine, broadside on, right in the middle of the track and carried into the cattle-stop. Had it been going a little faster, it might have got over the crossing in time. When the locomotive crashed into it, glass was hurled yards down the line, seats were thrown into the »iir, and the driving-wheel bounded back on to the road. Tne five people in the car seemed to be hurled through the hood and side. Mr Cooke spoke to ope of tho women just as she died. There was a tremendous noise as the engine ground its way along the track over the ear and finally toppled oyer, piling up the cattle' trucks behind it. According to a statement by Mr J. L. Benfell, an uncle of Nqrse Benfell, a suitcase of clothes which was in the motor-oar was removed from the scene of the accident by somebody without authority. Nurses Benfell and Palmer had been staying with him over tho week-end.

Four Funerals To-day. Tlio funeral of the Matron, Miss I. D. Brand, is to be held at 11 o'clock to-day, leaving 221 Durham street for the Bromley Cemetery. Tho drivers of the locomotive and of the car and two of the nurses are also to be burled at Bromley. At 2 o'clock, the funeral of Mr ft. A. Smith will go from his home, 45 Tabaft street, Opawa, and those of Nurse I. D. Benfell and Mr C. W. Smith from 115 Linwood avenue and 541 St. Asaph street respectively. The funeral of Nurse M. Cameron will leave the Christchurch Hospital for Bromley at 2 p.m. ott Friday. The coffin containing the body of Nurse J. F. Palmer was conveyed north by the ferry steamer last evening. The funeral will be held from Ellis road, Taihape, where her parents live. Engine-driver Smith leavos a widow and three adult children —Mr L. Smith (Asliburton), Mr S. C. W. Smith (Christchurch), and Mrs G. Samson (Christchurch). R. A. Smith was the youngest son of Mrs J. Beatty (Tabart strectV Opawa) and tho late Mr A. J. Smith. Toll of Crossing Accidents.

In five and a half months this year, no fewer than 10 lives have been lost in railway crossing accidents in Canterbury alone. On January 27th, Mary Isabel Clarke, a 12-year-old girl, was killed at the Addington crossing by a Parnassus train. Ernest Robert Vine was killed at the Waltham crossing when his motor-cycle collided with the Lyttelton train. In a collision between his gig and a train, Robert Bruce Breeze was killed at Jeff's road crossing in February. The most recent accident, at the Waltham crossing, resulted in the death of tho keeper, Arthur William Bright.

INQUEST ON VICTIMS. EVIDENCE OP IDENTIFICATION. "I am quite sure we are all sympathetic with tho relatives of tho deceased/' said the Coroner, Mr E. D. Mosley, at the inquest on the six victims of the Sockburn crossing smash on Monday, which was opened yesterday. "It is a dreadful disaster that has overtaken us," he continued, "and I am sure that the public of Canterbury and of New Zealand sincerely regret that such an accident should have happened. It is hard to understand. Six lives of value to the community are gone in a moment." _ , The inquest was connned to the hearing of evidence of i3entification. Dr. A. C. McKillop, Superintendent of the Sunnyside Mental Hospital, identified the occupants of the motor-car. He said that Ralph Augustus Smith was employed by the Mental Hospital as a chauffeur. He was 21 years of age. Isabella Duncan Brand was matron* at the Templeton Farm Colony branch of the hospital. She was 42 years of age. Mary Cameron, 22, Isabel Dorothy Benfell, 19, and Jane Field Palmer 19, were employed as institution officers at the hospital. _ Henry Lewis Gibson, acting outdoor assistant Traffic Manager of. the New Zealand Railways at Christchuich, iden-

tified Charles Waterloo Smith, the driver of the train. Smith, he said, had been employed as an engine-driver in the service for 39 years. During the past five years he had come into personal contact with Smith. In answer to a question from the Coroner, he stated that engine-drivers had to be examined every year as to physical fitnoss, eyesight, hearing, etc. The Coroner then adjourned the inquest sine die for further hearing of evidence, to enable the police to make enquiries and the Railway Department to bring forward any further evidence.

LACK OP COWCATCHER. PROBABLE CAUSE OP DERAILMENT. Discussing tho accident with a representative of The Press yesterday, an official of the Railway Department stated that, in his opinion, the engine would not have been upset .had the tender attached to it been equipped with a cow-catcher as it would have resulted in the car being swept to one side o£ the line. There was no doubt, however, that in any case the occnpants .of the car would have been killed. He thought that if the engine had been facing the front of the train with the tender behind it, the locomotive would not have derailed, the light weight of the tender having been responsible for a tender at the front of an engine were heavily laden with coal, as _- ls . Was > the vision of the driver ight be obscured to some extent, "but W j S . °lear that in tho present case .? . " Vot had seen the car, and apR* e . brakes, it was the duty of oil i V , er *° k® e P a sharp lookout at l level-crossings, as was proved to nave been done in the present instance.