THE WHITECLIFFS RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Evening Star, Issue 4047, 15 February 1876, Page 3

THE WHITECLIFFS RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

. A ll oh the body of Thomas Stodnert, the fireman of the train which ran off the line on the Whitecliffs Branch of the Canterbury Railways, qn the Bth inst., was *~d °niriday, before Dr. Coward, coroner of theAistrict. The principal witnesses exammed were the guard and engine-driver of the train on the occasion, and Mr Warner (Engneer of.the Canterbury Railways). The tter said, >

I found that the engine had first left the line about a chain beyond the commencement of the curve, and had rode .along -the sleepers for another chain, and finally pitched over on the Inside of the curve. I gauged the line from th« POmt where the engine first got off, and f<n£iid xt quite correct as to: gauge until the pomt where the engine left the track altogether. At this point there waa only one length of Wttl-twenty-one feet-bent, and that considerably both on the inner and outer curve. The curve, a seven Qhain one, is not an unusually sharp one. It would be impossible for an engine and train to come down the incline aVeignt miles an hour without the breaks being down. There is an incline before reaching the curve of 1 in 105, and if the driver came down without his breaks on he would, before he get to the bottom of the indino be going at from 20 to 25 miles per hour, winch of course would be a very danspeed to approach the curve, think tnis most decidedly. If the train were fomg without the breaks down the speed would o far too great to, go round the might go, but it would be exceedingly dangerous, and I should never think of taking an engine down the incline without-the breaks being down. O.i the' morning after the acci d o ®!* I asked the dtiver, Lyons, whether he could account for the accident in any way. He ; * then hiin to detail to me everything that had taken place. He said that on coming ou the curve Tie felt his engine ride M; though the road was uneven. I said ** What did you do then?’ He paid “I put steam full ? er ‘ * effect, of putting steam oh When she was tiding would be that the engine would jump the road at once There can be no doubt in ih Vmirjd as to how and why the accident .oocurred Tho driver, Instead of putting the break on to steady his engine nut steam onwhichwas jurt the opposite to what he should have- done. This, I think, was how the accident occurred.: •After d lengthy discussion the jury returiled the' following verdict“ Prom the evidence before the jury, ttey are of opinion tpat Stodhert's death: resulted from the accident. 1 on -the White Cliffs' line, through the engine driver not putting on the break while descending: the - incline. And the jury are further qf ppinion that there ought to be a notification of the gradients, so. as to guide OH this and. other Canterbury Imesr "' v t The Coroner said that the question was, Whetherthe jury were of opinion that there wfta 7 cmpaple negogence,? oldened of that uJv* f>i l j - The inquiry then terminated*