FALL FROM MOVING TRAIN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 220, 11 June 1920, Page 8

FALL FROM MOVING TRAIN

YOUNG MAN FATALLY INJURED. By Telegraph—Press Aenooittton. ' Auckland, June 10. An inquest respecting the death of a ship's steward', James Mal'an (23), who fell from a moving train at Penrose on Monday evening, and subsequently died in the hospital, was held before Mr. Wilson, S.M., to-day. Evidence was given that two Penrose residents were- attracted by a cry near the railway lino after 8 o'clock on Mondoy evening, and found two men, Mallin and Murdock M'Leod, lying injured beside the line, Muilin being unconscious. Both were sent to tho hospital, where Mallin died next morning. M'Leod had a head wound and an arm wound, but) was not seriously hurt. M'Leod, in 3ns evidence, stated that ho and Mallin wero both ship's stewards, and lived at the same place at Onehunga. They had been in town together on Monday,' nnd left for Onehunga shortly after G o'clock. They changed trains at Penrose, and went "inside th® carriage, but went out on the carriage platform just after the train started. Witness seid ho was standing outside tho door, nnd his friend Mallin was leaning with his back to tho platform rail, singing and beating time with bis hands. Witness then hnd a faint recollection of falling off the platform through the platform gate. It was dark at the time, he said, and lie did not notice w : hothe,r or net tho pnto was open when they went onion tho platform. When lie oamo to he called out. In answer to the Coroner, M'Leod said that Mallin did not "have any drink in his company, but between 5.15 and ,6 p.m. ho was in the Waverley Hotel with someone else. When witness rejoined Mallin just after G p.m. Mallin appeared to him to bo quite sober. Witness could not give any reason for going out of tho carriage to stand on the platform, and could not say ihow either he or Mallin fell off the platform. He thought it must have been caused by a lurch of the train. The Coroner found that Mallin's death was caused by falling' from a moving train at Penrose, and that there was no evidence to show how he came to fall from tho train.