ACCIDENT AT WANGANUI.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9134, 1 May 1908, Page 5

ACCIDENT AT WANGANUI.

MAN CUT TO PIECES BY THE TRAIN. A shocking accident occurred at Wanganui railway station last evening as the 9 o’clock train from Palmerston was drawing into the platform. Mr Albert Benefield, the proprietor of the well-known Benefield’s frnit shop in the Avenue, had been to Aramoho in the evening and boarded the train at that station with'the object of returning to town. He put his bicycle in the guard’s van and stood on a carriage platform as the train ran into Wanganui. Another passenger—Mr Arthur John Pitcher, an engine driver on the Public "Works line—was also standing on the platform and as the station yard was reached Mr Benefield was alongside him. Mr Pitcher’s attention was directed in another direction for a moment, and then he was horrified to see his fellow-pas-senger’s body [disappearing between the carriages. He caught hold of the falling man’s wrist and clung to it for a ;;;brief space of time, but was obliged to let go, the unfortunate man dropping on to the rail beneath the carriage wheels. Mr Pitcher, being acquainted with the working of the Westinghouse brake, endeavoured to cut the connection. He partly succeeded, the brakes being applied to the guard’s van and another carriage, but the brakes on the other wheels were not opei'rated owing to the connection not being” cut thoroughly. The result was that the unfortunate man under the train was dragged along some seventeen yards before the engine pulled up at the station. The alarm had been given and as qnickly as possible the unconscious and horribly mutilated body was taken into the porters’ room. The loft arm was mangled above the elbow, and the left leg was in a similar state below the knee, while there was a deep gash in the calf of the right leg, and the head was bruised. Mr Barkmau, the station foreman, applied tourniquets and stopped the bleeding. Sergeant Bonrka and Constable Thompson were also present and did all that was possible. In the meantime Dr Anderson bad been summoned, and on arrival had the injured man conveyed to the hospital, where the mangled limbs were amputated, but death took place soon after midnight. Mr Benefield, who was about thirty years of age, was married, and had one child. — Chronicle.