THE APPLEBY FATALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 71, 13 March 1908, Page 2

THE APPLEBY FATALITY.

VERDICT OF THB JURY AGAINST THE DRIVER. Per Press Association. Nelson, U&l Night, Alter five sittings tlj e inquest touch lug the death of Mrs. Lydia Tilbury, th< 'victim of tlio coach and train collisioi at Appleby on February Ist, was con eluded to-day, when the coachdriver ■Charles Brickland, was examined. H« ■said he hud been driving the Nelson-Mo. tueka coach siiic e April last, and on February Ist he was returning .to Nelson iiiom Redwood's Vallcv. Reaching the •scene of the accident at 1.20 p.m. he did not hear th e engine whistle, and did not see th e train until the coach was on the railway line. He had no time to do anything to avert the accident, and had not a clear recollection of what occurred. Il e was not aware that a special tram was running on that day. The

coach and harness WC r e in goo d order, and the horses were quiet. Had he seen the train he could have pulled up within a couple ot yaTds. He did not remember M.ss Fittall, the passenger on the box, calling his attention to the approach of the train. H e was exercisin« ordinary care on that day, hut he ad" tutted that had he looked to the right the train would have been visible for some distance up the line. He had no explanation to offer as to how the accident occurred He , wd yteY i ma mct « th au acc.dcnt on the same coach when the horses shied and witness and the box passengers had been thrown off Ihat mishap was not of a *criou"s" m. ture. Counsel addressed the jury, a nd ~™ rW \7, sl "!»»*l u„ at considerable length. A ter half-an-hour's retirement he jury tound that deceased met ],„■ death in a collision between the couch and a tram at Appleby crossing on February Ist, the accident being caused by the negligence of Charles Brickland, the '. couchdmcr. A rider was added that no ' M Sj as attachaWe to the railway ,