Woman Struck Down and Killed by Train

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 236, 24 December 1927, Page 1

Woman Struck Down and Killed by Train

ARGYLE STREET CROSSING ANOTHER ghastly fatal accident occurred at the Argyle Street level railway crossing at 12.15 p.m. this afternoon. A train hit Mrs. Ethel Brittain of No. 2 Codrington Street, Grey Lynn, and her four-year-old boy, when they were returning from shopping. Mrs. Brittain was killed outright. The child received head injuries and is being treated in the Auckland Hospital.

]LTRS. BRITTAIN and her child had been visiting her mother, who lives near the scene of the accident.

They left to do some shopping in the Great North Road, and when returning the child ran along to get over the crossing. Mrs. Brittain apparently just, at that moment noticed the approach of the train from Auckland, and ran to the rescue, but the train came upon them swiftly, and struck her down, and hit them, with ghastly results. Mrs. Brittain’s body was picked up badly mangled and dismembered about 20 yards up the line. The child was found in the cattle-stops just beside the footpath. Mrs. Brittain was about to be confined. There were two witnesses of the accident. One was a lorry driver for the Mount Albert Borough Council, who shouted a warning to Mrs. Brittain, but too late to deter her. Mrs. Brittain was the wife of Mr. George Brittain, labourer, of Codrington Street. Beside her body were a few leaves of bread and a purchase from the butcher. The train was bound for Henderson and left Auckland at noon. The Argyll Street crossing has a bad record of fatalities and serious accidents. There is a bend in the line on the town side of the crossing and almost in the bend are some stacks of timber.

When the trains are coming into the station it is stated they usually are running silently, and this increases the risk for the unobservant. The child’s injuries are fairly serious. They consist of a fractured pelvis and head injuries. He was removed by the St. John Ambulance. The Argyll Street crossing has been the scene of more than one fatality. At 4.30 o’clock on the afternoon of December 16 an outgoing mixed passenger and goods train struck a motor-lorry at the Agryll Street level crossing, tossing the vehicle aside and causing severe injuries to three of the occupants. Mr. Elihu John Shaw, aged 63, of Titirangi, suffered head injuries through being thrown from the lorry on to his head on the road. Mrs. Henrietta Elizabeth Shaw, his wife, aged 65, was thrown very heavily, and received internal injuries. Mr. Gilbert Francis Shaw, the driver of the lorry, of Titirangi, suffered most. When the engine struck the motor he -was thrown from the cab and subsequently carried forward by the engine, receiving injuries to his head and body. Mrs. Gilbert Shaw and her infant daughter, who were riding in the lorry, were not greatly injured.