ACCIDENTS

Globe, Volume V, Issue 600, 22 May 1876, Page 3

ACCIDENTS

leg broken. An accident nappened in the Riccarton road shortly after six o'clock on Saturday evening, which resulted in the breaking of a man's leg and the death of a horse. It seems that a horse and dray belonging to Mr W. R. Parker, bricklayer, of Cashel street, was proceeding along the Riccarton road, and that when near the house of Mr Shand two hoisemen were discovered coming at a furious pace from the opposite direction. One of the horses, ridden by a man named John Longstaff, came into violent collision with the horse in the dray, completely unharnessing it, and knocking it out of the shafts. The dray was occupied by four men, one of whom named John Lee, a bricklayer, was thrown to the ground by the force of the concussion, and bad his leg broken. Longstaff was nleo thrown to the ground, and cut a good deal about the head, while the horse he was riding fell ou to the road in a dying condition. The man Lee was at once placed in a spring cart and brought on to ,the Christchurch Hospital. Constable Bashford arrived upon the spot soon after the accident, when finding that it was impossible for the horse to recover—for one of its eyes was out, its shoulder dislocated, and its spine injuredhe had it shot and removed to the side of the road out of the way of the traffic. He then proceeded to interview Longstaff, who had been the cause of the accident, whom he found to be in a state of drunkenness Finding that he wa-i injured as before described, the constable had him a'eo removed to the hospital, where both men uow remain. A man named William Carsons was driving the dray at the time of the accident. A warrant has been taken out against Longstaff for drunkenness and furious driving, and he will be brought up at the police court as soon aa he is able to leave the hospital. run over. The second accident occurred at the corner of Tuam and Montreal streets about noon the same day, when a child named Harding was knocked down by a cart driven by a man named Henry Jones, and run over. Jones at once stopped, and took the child to the shop of Mr Elliott, druggist, where it was found to bo a good deal cut and bruised about the forehead. It was shortly afterwards taken to the Hospital, and had i*s injuries dressed. Fortunately they were not of a very serious nature, and in the afternoon the child was restored to its own home. knocked down by a cab. The third accident took place in High street. The child of Mr Brown, butcher, had gone into the road, when it was knocked down by a cab, and the wheel slightly grazed its leg ; but fortunately without doing it any serious injury. It was at onco removed to its father's house, where the wound was attended to. railway accident at oxford. The locomotive attached to the last train leaving Rangiora for Oxford broke down on Saturday night, causiug a delay to the passengers of over four hours, the train arriving at its destination at midnight. RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT SYDNEY. " A fatal acc ; dent railway accident occurred on May Ist," states the Sydney Mo-ni/i;/ Herald, "on the railway line, about a mile from the Redfern terminus. When the 7.15 am down-train was proceeding on its journey the driver saw the body of a man lying beside the line, about 3ft from the upline of rails. He pulled up the train as soon as possible, and sent the guard back to see what was the matter. The guard found that the man was dead, and apparently but recently killed, as the body was still warm and bleeding from a wound in the temple. The neck was also broken, and the appearances seemed to indicate that the unfortunate man had been Btruck by the mail train, which had passed upwards about fire mmutes previously. It is stated, however, that neither the driver nor the guard, nor the passengers of the mail train Baw anything of the accident. Information was immediately sent to the terminus, and the station master sent out an engine to bring the body into Sydney. The body has since been recognised as that of a man named Warner, of Cleveland street, Redfern, who, it is said, was in the habit of crossing the railway line every morning." A diabolical attempt to upset the train which leaves Newcastle, New South Wales, at 10 and reaches Wallsend at 10.30 p.m was made on the 6th instant, by some scoundrels who are as yet undiscovered. The Newcastle Pilot reports that " while a miner named Powell was walking home about half-past 9 at night, he observed a heavy railway sleeper lying across the rails, about fifty yards on the Newcastle side of the Open Top Bridge, close to Wallsend. The sleeper had been carefully laid across the rails, and firmly wedged in with large stones, to prevent its being easily swept away, and so secure the train being thrown off the rails. >n several places along the Wallsend railway here are embankments so steep and bridges ■lO high that an accident by which the train would be precipitated over either would be •attended with great;disaster and injury to life; and it was across the line near one of these bridges and a steep embankment that the sleeper was placed. It is difficult to imagine what could have been the object of the ruffian who attempted to perpetrate such a horrible outrage, for if the sleeper had remained in its place an hour longer one °f" * ne most fearful railway catastrophes on record would have occurred. Saturday being pay day, the ten o'clock train was crowded with passengers, and if it had been thrown off the rails many hundreds mußt have been killed and wounded."