DRIVER KNOCKED OFF HIS ENGINE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 42, 20 February 1939, Page 8

DRIVER KNOCKED OFF HIS ENGINE

ACCIDENT ON M4IN TRUNK FOUND UNCONSCIOUS NEAR TRACK I The driver of a goods train, Mr. Albert Ernest Rowley, of Taihape, was picked up unconscious on the railway 'line north of Hunterville early on Saturday morning. He was admitted to the Taihape Hospital and, up until last night, had not regained consciousness. Apparently he had been knocked off the tender of the engine by an loverbridge near Vinegar Hill, and the [train travelled a mile and a-half or more before he was missed by the ■fireman, Mr. George Squires, of Taihape. Mr. Squires walked back along I the line and, with the assistance of surfacemen and after some difficulty, ■ found Mr. Rowley beside the track. i The train, a goods, left Marton at '1.30 a.m. on Saturday and was runining late when it left Hunterville. The driver, leaving the fireman in charge, climbed out to the tender with the intention of trimming the coal. It is sometimes a practice of drivers who have firemen capable of taking the throttle to do the work. It is thought that the new overbridge was the (cause of Mr. Rowley being knocked off the engine. He suffered a fractured skull, scalp, and face wounds and [was treated by a nurse at Hunter!ville, and then taken to Taihape by train, being admitted to hospital at 4 a.m. ' It was a dark night and the fireman ! and guard, Mr. M. Siddle. Taihape, had great difficulty in finding the ini jured driver, whose condition is reI'ported to be very serious.