INQUEST.

Evening Star, Issue 3247, 17 July 1873, Page 3

INQUEST.

An inquest was held in the Hospital today, before Mr flocken and a jury, on the body of Angus MThereon, who was run over by the last passenger train from Dupedin laat night. The following evidence was given : Edward Edwards, laborer : I reside about a quarter of a mil? below Burkp’s hrpwery, and have known the deceased during the laat eight or nine years. We left Kirk’s store together about five o’clock yesterday, where we had been drinking, and walked homewards along the railway line in the direction of Port Chalmers. Kirk’s store is about a quarter of a mile this side of Burke’s brewery. As we approached the cutting af Wiggin’s Point, where there is a curve, I said to deceased, “ Come along, Mac, make haste, I am hungry, and want to get my supper. He said, “ Goto hell,” and I then left him, and ran ahead. He was then walking on the side of the line near the embankment. When I heard the railway whistle behind me, I was about thirty yards ahead of him ; and looking for him, and not seeing him, 1 thought he was hidden behind the curve. The tra;n came up j I stood at the side of the embankment to let it pass, and after it had, I went back along the line, and found deceased lying between the rails quite dead, and crumpled up. Hearing a man named John Crowsen coming up, I told him of the accident, and went back with Ipm. 1 then weet along to tell Mrs MTherspn p ; f the accident. We were both thp worse f«r liquor at the time, each of us having taken from six to seven pints of beer. Deceased knew that he was trespassing by walking on the line, and he hadd oue so before. The road is not properly formed at this place, being knee-deep in mud; indeed it ends at the brewery. 1 have seen many walking on the line. The road is fenced off from the railway line. It was getting dusk when we left Kirke’s, and we had been walking about fifteen minutes at the time of the accident. 1 had not been thinking about the train, and I am sure deceased had not. The train when it passed me appeared to be going at its usual rate, although steam appeared to have been slackened. By jurymen: I measured the distance between Burke’s brewery and the place of the accident. There are 112 rails, oj a distance of 896 yards. J 4p E qt' know whether Kjfke is licensed to sell liquors.—By the Coroner .' There are notifies posted along the line warning persons to keep off it. John Crowaen, laborer working on the railway line : I was at Burke’s Brewery at about 5.12 o’clock last evening ; the down train was passing at the time. Mr Thomas, the engine-driver, told me he saw something lying between the raijg a short distance away, but he could not say whether it was a man or what it was, and asked a man named Maliny and myself to see what it was. After going between a quarter and half a mile, we met the last witness about eighty yards from where the body lay. Having been told about thp accident by him, we ran alon£ and sa\y deceased lying bet weep the {ails dead. Having procured assistance, the body was placed in the train on its return to town. It was getting dark, and it was possible fo discern, but not to distinguish an object thirty yards away. I heard a signal whistle given about two minutes before the train arrived.

This waa not the uiual whistle for the Brewery. By Jurymen : The whistle usually given is when the tram is about 150 or 200 yards away, but this signal whistle was beyond that distance, and I thought it a signal to some one on the lino. The sleepers are not covered with ballast at that place, and it is possible deceased might have slipped down just previous to the train passi. g. By the Coroner : We have frequently warned passengers to keep off the rails. John Thomas : I was driving an engine on the Dunedin and Port Chalmers Railway yesterday. A train which I drove left Dunedin at 5 o’clock last evening. When about a quarter of a mile this side of Burke s Brewery, and turning a curve, I saw some black thing lying across the metals between the rails. iNot knowing what it was, I did not shut off steam; I had previously whistled to warn off the men who were frequently working there. The black object was thirty or forty yards the other side of the curve. On arriving at Burke’s I told my mate, the stoker, to* shut the cocks. “ He did so and found some human hair on them. I then told the men to go and see about it. When we got to Port Chalmers I told the station-master of the occurrence, and reported it to the police. On returning to town, we brought the body in a truck with us. We could not have possibly seen the object above thirty or forty yards away, as the curve would have hidden it. We were going at the usual pace, about sixteen miles an hour. It would have taken us three minutes to pull up, or require a hundred yards to do it in. Had I known the object to have been a man, I could not have saved him.—By jurors : I shut off the steam on entering the curve, and at the same time I put on the two breaks. The gradient, which was one in seventy, waa sufficient to drive the train down the hill without any steam. If we had been on level ground, the train would have stopped long before reaching the curve. I have seen several persons on the line at different times. By the Coroner: If I had seen a boulder thirty or forty yards away, I should have shut off steam. I had shut off the steam about a minute or half a minute before reaching the object. I usually shut off steam at this place, and so I could not have done any more. [The Coroner then said the answers were given very badly, and as it was on this point the jury had most to consider, he hoped the answers would be given better. ] By the Jury : I have no communication with the guard’s van. I had 1001b. steam on at the time. I have been driving for four years, and have been on the Port line since it opened. By Mr Rolfe : With a ight train we do not shut off steam in going 'round the curve, but with a heavy one we do The Coroner said he could not make anything out of witness’s answers, and said that unless clearer evidence was given, the case would have to be adjourned. After further evidence, a verdict of “Accidental Death” was returned.