THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT KENSINGTON CROSSING.

Kumara Times, Issue 1378, 2 March 1881, Page 2

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT KENSINGTON CROSSING.

The Dunedin Morning Herald publishes the following particulars oE accident at Kensington railway cross-w ing (about one mile from Dunedin) oil* the 22nd ult., when the Walton Park goods train, due at Dunedin Station at 8.30, aiid driven by Harry Atkins, and of which Redpath was guard, collided at the Kensington crossing with Michael Key's cab, in which were the following passengers .'--Mr Lyons, late 1 of tlie Union Hotel, Stafford street ; Mr Griffith Roberts, late of the Caledonian Hotel; Mr Harry Mayo, late of the Robert Rums Hotel } Mr 0. C. Armstrong, of the Union Hotel; Mr James Fairbnrn, late waiter at Wain's Hotel j Mr George Lloyd, formerly cook at Watson's Hotel. Messrs Lyons and Roberts were on the box seat of the cab, together with Key, the driver, and these oddly enough, considering the surroundings of the case, escaped aeri* ous injury,

Mr Michael Key, owner and driverof the cab, made the following state* ment i —l owned one of the cabs plyiug between St, Kilda and Dunedin. When I left Hutton's Hotel at St. Kilda & little after 8 o'clock last evening, I had six passengers in the cab, as far as t could understand. Of these passengers I only knew Messrs Armstrong and Mayo, who were inside the cab. I had two passengers sitting alongside of me j I do not know their names—Mr Armstrong knows then), I drove straight from the St. Kilda Hotel as far as the Kensington crossing without stopping, because my cab would not accommodate any additional passengers. There was another cab in front of mine, but that was not loaded; It stopped to pick up passengers. I went ahead. I drove along as far as the railway crossing at Kensington. When I came up to within fifty yards of the railway Crossing I pulled ha!f-up, and put my head out to listen for the train. I could not hear anything, so I Went on. Just, aa I was getting along with the horses on the rails I first saw the engine. At far as I can make out, the railway engine struck my horses and the front part of the cab. I had two horses with my cab. As far as I could see, one of the horses was completely smashed on the Kensington railway platform, and the other was severely injured. I could not say whether the latter horse is likely to recover or not. Immediately I saw the train I endeavoured to pull my horses back, but it was then too iHte. After the train had struck my horses, the first thing I knew was that I was thrown over the picket-fence on the other side of the railway platform. I was picked up and brought to the Hospital, and I don't know what became of the passengers in my cab. As far as I could understand, my cab was all smashed. Ido not know how the passengers of my cab were affected by the accident. I never heard the railway whistle once. I did not pull up when I slackened the horses, but I put out my head listening for the whistle, and heariug no whittle I went on. There is no chance of seeing the train coming from Caversham to Dunedin until you are right on the rails. The wind last evening, I think, was from the north-west at the time of the accident, and that might have stopped me- - heaiing the whistle of the enginedriver. I invariably kept a good lookout. William Higginson, the cab-driver who was behind me, had stopped to pick up passengers. He told me him' self that he was so close to the railway train that the pole of his cab actually caught the last carriage of the train, and he pulled up just as he skinned'the end of the train. Higginson was driving two horses, which were quiet. My horses were very quiet, and one of them had been for a considerable time on the road from Dunedin to the Water of Leith. What made me so positive of there being no railway train approaching was that Mr Proudfoot's tram-car had just passed the Kensington Railway crossing before me. There was no guard at the Kensington railway crossing at the time I came along last night. A guard is stationed there daring the day time, and he leaves it at a certain time at night—about 7 o'clock. I don't know the exact time at which the guard is supposed to leave the Kensington railway crossing in the evening. My left leg is very badly hurt, and I am t bruised all over. I expect to be confined to my bed in the Hospital for several days. Atkins, the engine-driver of the train, reported to the Manager of Otago Railways, that he had kept the whistle " going from the time shortly after leav ing the Caversham Railway Station until almost on the crossing. Mr Johnston, storekeeper, of South

t>unedin, states that he heard the engine's whistle on the rise about 150 .yards, in his opinion* from the crossing, and cried out to the cabmen, both of whonl driving at a brisk trot, to warn the» of their danger, but from dome cause they did not bear or observe him, and on they went, and just as the horses reached the line the engine struck the near-side horse about the shoulder a terrible blow, Vrhich. disembowelled him, and Bhot horses, passengers, and cab a heap of ruins on the end of the Kensington railway platform. Mr Armstrong received a rather seVefl3 bruise on the side. Mr Roberts bas a small wound on the forehead. Mr Lloyd was very severely shaken ; and Mr James Fairburn was so badly affected by the accident that he had to have four toes amputated. Mr Henry Mayo was in a very low condition ; he was then breathing heavily, and groaning in a most distressing manner, and was not expected to recover. Michael Key, the cab driver, was badly shaken, but has been declared out of danger. Our latest telegram stated that " No hope is entertained of the recovery of Mayo, and Lloyd is still in a critical condition."