INQUEST.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9135, 2 May 1908, Page 4

INQUEST.

THE LATE MR BENEFIELD. An inquest into the circumstances connected with the death of the 'late Mr Albert Benefield, who was run over by a train on Thursday evening, was held at Wanganui yesterday, before Mr R. L. Stanford, S.M. and Coroner, and the following jury:—Messrs Clayton, Barnett, Tremewan, .Bnckrell, Fiavell, and Markham. After the jury had viewed the body evidence was taken as follows : Arthur Henry Benefield, said that the deceased, who was his brother, was at his house at Aramoho just before the 9 o’clock train crossed the railway bridge. He telephoned to his wife that he was coming in by train, and then wont to the Aramoho station. He was in good health and spirits. Deceased was not subject to fits, hut witness had heard that he had become faint on one or two occasions, when his wife had had to procure water for him. George Foster, who was guard of the train, said that deceased, whom he knew personally, boarded the train at Aramoho, putting his bicycle in the guard's van. When about forty or fifty yards from the station he heard a scream and felt a hump. He immediately opened the tap on the Westinghouse brake, hut the train, which should have been pulled up under ordinary circumstances, went right on to the station. Alfred John Pitcher, who was a passenger by the 9 o’clock train, said he was standing on the platform. As the train came into the Wanganui station deceased came out of the carriage and stood on the platform for a couple of minutes. Witness’s attention was occupied in another direction for a second or two, and then he noticed deceased falling between the carriages on the outer side of the platform. One hand was grasping the staunchlon and the other was endeavouring to get a hold. Witness caught hold of the right wrist,Shut deceased’s foot must then either have caught in a sleeper or got under a wheel, for he was snatched away. Witness then disconnected the hose on the Westinghouse brake and turned off the tap oh the'frout carriage. This had the effect of putting on the brake on the carriages in the rear part of the train, leaving the front part free. W 7 hat he did would prevent the guard operating the brake pa the whole train. “

Peter Barkraan, station foreman at Wanganui, said that on the arrival of the 9 o’clock train the guard informed him that a man had fallen off the train. Witness and others then searched, and found the deceased lying across the points leading to the goods-shed. His left arm and leg were almost severed, the head was badly injured, and there was a deep gash in the right leg. Witness had him removed to the porters’ room where he stopped the bleeding. Dr. Anderson bad been summoned, and had the man removed to the hospital. There were no signs that the body l ad been dragged. Thomas Fergus, house surgeon at the Wanganui Hospital, said the deceased was admitted to the hospital about 9.40. After describing the nature of the injuries witness said the left leg was amputated at the knee and the left arm above the elbow. Deceased died from shock about 13.10 a.m.

The jury, without retiring, returned a verdict that the deceased was accidentally killed by falling off a railway train.