SAD RAILWAY FATALITY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3058, 1 December 1908, Page 5

SAD RAILWAY FATALITY.

A MMiiU'iER KILLED AT MASTERTON YARDS. FAL-J& ACROSS THE LINE.' AND WAS TERRIBLY INJURED. An extremely sad fatality occurred at'the Mastertotf railway yards yesterday morning, v?heri a young man, lonly 24 years of ag#;> numed Leonard Knight, employed asa'shunter, was rTM over by an engine and met a shocking death. The immediate circumstances surrounding the accident are not definitely- known, but decease's fellow employees in the yards and on the engine which caused the death state that the occurrence was apparently due to Knight slipping down across ; the line in front of the engine, when attempting to lift the "bridle"' of the coupling to allow of the engine linking up with a truck it was approaching. Driver McVicker and' Fireman Thompson were working onthe engine engaged in the shunting, which wis taking place at the' moment on No; Strack. Knight was in charge of the ground operations-on that lina, and was keeping pace with the engine neared a truck which the engine was moving towards with the object of clearing the line for the accommodation of the 10 o'clock train from south, which had been delayed. Deceased evidently' noticed that the "bridle" of the en--gine was down,- which would not' allow of its connecting with the' coupling of the truck, and he seemed to have attempted to lift the "bridle" when about twenty-five yards from the truck, as the engine was moving. He slipped and fell on the line, and before the driver of the engine could be warned of the mishap, the engine, which was moving backwards to the truck—tender on —had knocked Knight down, and the wheels of the tender had pissed over him, Pulling up with all speed, the driver and fireman, and others, rushed to extricate the unfortunate man, but it was found he was.still under the wheels of the tender, and it was thought advisable to lift the wheels clear of the line by means of jacks. These operations occupied to about eight minutes after the accident, and during the course of this time Knight was groaning in a semi-conscious way. Immediately after his release from his terrible position, deceased was taken to the porter's room in the station buildings, but he only lived two or three minutes after being .lifted eff the line. The only words uttered by Knight were to Porter Conett, who asked him before he was removed from the engine how the affair occurred, Knight replying, "Kill me outright, I'm settled. I slipped." The injuries sustained by the poor fellow were of a terribly mutilating character, one arm being crushed to a pulp, the head being gashed, and the fore part of the body being badly lacerated. He was removed to the morgue, after the arrival of Dr Cook, who came to j'.he station on being summoned, but who arrived just in time tojjsee d?ath occur. Deceased, who served in the South African campaign, was a married man, and leaves a wife and child two months old. He had been in the service of the Department for some three years past, about a year. of which he spent in- Masterton. His relatives reside at the Hutt, which place he was a native of. An inquest is to be held this morning.