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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3508, 4 October 1882, Page 2

A fatal accident, an accident that might have been avoided, an accident that should never have been allowed to occur, terminated the day's holiday yesterday. A sober industrious young man, a man who, till the day of bis death, had not touched intoxicating liquor for six months', overcome by unwonted indulgence in drink, was permitted to travel by the train. It is a holiday time, and the train as on all such occasions was crowded. The Rules and Regulations of the New Zealand Railways, which at ordinary times must be a terror to evildoers, are relaxed for the sake of increasing the receipts. More people pay their money for conveyance by train than there are trains to accommodate. They crowd the carriages, and they crowd the platforms; they are allowed to do in a state of jollification, produced in too many cases by alcohol, what, when perfectly sober, would be a breach of the regulations for them to do. The regulations, in other words, are a dead letter at the precise moment when they should be the more rigorously enforced. The regulations and the bye-lavrs were designed for the good conduct of the railways, and for the protection of the lives and property of passengers. If a passenger, in a more than half-drunken state, is permitted to travel by a train, he has the right to expect that he will be protected from injury. Was that protection afforded to poor Derrant when, crowded out of the carriage, he sat on the platform, and, dozing off to sleep, fell to the ground and was crushed to death ? Are we to follow the stereotyped phrase and say "no blame can be attached to anyone" ? Perhaps it would be more gratifying to those who to-day are in the enjoyment of life and health if we were to ea'y that tbe death of Derrant reflects the highest credit on the railway authorities. But we are not going to say anything of the sort. We are going to say that nothing can be more disgraceful to them, and tbat it is no thanks to them that, on every holiday occasion, similarly fatal accidents do not occur. Let any one on a public holiday watch the despatch of a train leaving Napier at the popular hour of the day, and he will see, a* a rule, that there are not enough carriages to seat the passengers. Then follows a delay to make up a longer train, and the time lost enables stragglers to arrive who still further swell the crowd. More often than otherwise the train is at last sent away with the liveliest indifference to the comfort of the passengers, the only regard being paid to the disposal of tickets, and the despatch of the holidaymakers. No accident occurs on the outward journey because everybody is sober. It is on the return when danger is to be feared, when it should be guarded against, and every precaution taken to ensure the safety of those who are least capable of looking after themselves. Can it be said tbat such precautions are taken when, in the fatal accidents occurring first to Robottom, and now to Derrant, we have evidence to show, apparently, to the contrary ? When overloaded trains leave town in the morning, overloaded trains may be expected to return at night. What is perfectly safe for a crowd to do in tbe freshness of the morning may be, and has been proved to be, the most dangerous folly on the close of a holiday. We trust that in tbe melancholy death of Derrant the railway authorities will learn a lesson that may preserve the lives of future travellers.