DEATHS.
INGRAM — On September 18, 1944, at Ashburton, Hortense Clemence, dearly loved wife of Walter Herbert Ingram. (Result of accident.)
PREDDY — On September 18, 1944, at Ashburton, Esme Hortensia, dearly loved wife of Lieutenant William J. Preddy (overseas) and loved daughter of Walter Herbert and Hortense Clemence Ingram. (Result of accident.) -Ashburton Guardian, 18/9/1944.
DOUBLE FATALITY
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER KILLED
SMASH AT KERMODE STREET.
TRAIN STRIKES MOTOR-CAR.
A double fatality occurred in Ashburton shortly before 10 a.m. to-day when a mother and her daughter were killed in a crossing smash at Kermode Street. They were: —
Mrs Esme Hortensia Preddy, aged 37, wife of Lieutenant William Johnson Preddy, who is overseas. Lieutenant Preddy, who was lately home on furlough, was a clerk at the Ashburton branch of the Union Bank of Australia before joining the forces. There are no children.
Mrs Hortense Clemence Ingram, of 18 Peter Street, mother of Mrs Preddy and wife of Mr Walter Herbert Ingram, tearoom proprietor, of Ashburton. As the result of her injuries, the major of which was severe shock, Mrs Ingram died in the Public Hospital shortly before 1 p.m.
Mrs Preddy was living with her mother.
Mrs Ingram, the driver of the car, had come down Kermode Street West to cross the line, when the accident happened. It was reported by a person who saw the accident that the car stopped when it came to the first line and then went on slowly. Marks on the road indicated that the brakes were applied just before the car came on to the main line.
The car was struck amidships on the driver’s side and the door on the opposite side was thrown open. Mrs Preddy, who was sitting beside her mother, fell out and was killed when the car and train went over her. The body was cut to pieces.
Indications were that a similar fate would have befallen Mrs Ingram had her coat not been caught firmly between the driver’s seat and the righthand door. When the train came to a standstill she was in the off-side front seat and was held there only by the tightly-stretched coat.
Coming down the incline off the Ashburton Bridge, the engine hit the car full amidships and carried it over a block up the line, coming to a standstill 36 yards north of the Moore Street crossing.
The ambulance which took Mrs Ingram to the hospital was one sent from Christchurch for inspection by the Ashburton St. John Ambulance Association, which is considering purchasing it.
Apart from the usual stop signs, there are no warning devices at the Kermode Street crossing. Vision from the direction the car was approaching was partly obscured by a rake of trucks left there about half an hour previously.
An inquest for identification purposes was held at 4 p.m. to-day.
There will be a double funeral at 3 p.m. on Thursday.
Mr Raleigh Ingram, a son of Mrs Ingram is an accountant in the Bank of New South Wales in Sydney. -Ashburton Guardian, 18/9/1944.
FUNERAL NOTICES.
THE Funerals of the late Hortense Clemence Ingram and her daughter, Esme Hortensia Preddy, will leave our Chapel, corner Cass and Victoria Streets, Ashburton, on THURSDAY, September 21, at 3 p.m., for the Ashburton Cemetery.
BAKER BROS. & KING, LTD. -Ashburton Guardian, 19/9/1944.
RAILWAY SMASH
KERMODE STREET FATALITY.
CLOSING OF CROSSING URGED.
CORONERS’ RIDER AT INQUEST.
An inquest into the deaths of Mrs Esme Hortensia Preddy and Mrs Hortense Clemence Ingram,, both of whom were killed in the crossing sniash at Kermode Street on September 18, was held before the Coroner (Mr E. C. Bathurst) this morning.
After hearing the evidence the Coroner found, in accprdance with medical evidence, that Mrs Ingram died from internal haemorrhage and shock received when the motor-car she was driving collided with the engine of a north-bound mixed train.
The verdict in the case of Mrs Preddy, her daughter, was that deceased came by her death as the result of multiple wounds of the thoracic and abdominal cavities and of the viscera, received in the same accident.
The Coroner stated that no blame was attachable to the Railway Department or its staff. The train crew stopped the train in a very short space and could not have evaded the accident. The sympathy of the people of Ashburton with the relatives of the deceased was expressed by the Coroner.
“A Dangerous Crossing.”
In a statement concerning the crossing where the accident occurred, the Coroner said it was dangerous and should be closed. This was the third inquest and the fourth death he had been concerned with as a result of accidents at that crossing. Lately a man crossing the line there narrowly escaped being hit by the rail car. The ramp leading up to the crossing tended to interfere with visibility so far as road traffic was concerned, particularly when railway trucks were left near the crossing. The Coroner stated his intention of forwarding to the Under-Secretary of the Minister of Justice a suggestion that the crossing be closed. Evidence of identification in each case was given by Walter Herbert Ingram, husband of Mrs Ingram and father of Mrs Preddy. He said the eyesight and hearing of both were good. Mrs Ingram had been driving for about five years.
Mr L. A. Charles, who appeared for the Railway Department, expressed the sympathy of the Department with the relatives of the deceased.
Medical evidence along the lines indicated in the verdict was given by Dr. Thomas Oliver Enticott in the case of Mrs Preddy and by Dr. William Guildford Todd in the case of Mrs Ingram.
Maxwell Thomson, a lorry driver employed by W. H. Collins and Company, who witnessed the accident from where he was loading a lorry about a chain from the crossing, said that the engine sounded its wliistle as it came over the bridge and again as it approached the crossing. When he heard the second blast witness saw a small car about 10 yards from the main line, travelling very slowly — probably at a walking pace. Both women in the car were looking north, in the opposite direction to which the train was approaching. The car went directly in front of the engine, the driver making no visible attempt to avoid the train. When the impact occurred the off-side door of the car swung open and the woman passenger fell out and was carried along in front of the car till she passed from from the view of witness. The train was familiar to witness and there was nothing excessive about its speed on this occasion. It gave the usual warnings when approaching the crossing. The vision of the driver of the car would probably be obscured by railway trucks standing just south of Kermode Street.
Visibility Obscured.
Evidence given by Constable Alan Robertson Grant was that of seven railway trucks standing just south of the crossing, the most northerly one was four feet from the south side of Kermode Street. Its load was 8 feet 2 inches high and that of the others slightly lower. The distance from the main line to that on which the trucks were was 25 feet. The trucks would obscure to a considerable degree the visibility of the driver of a car with respect to a train approaching from the south. For people in a small car the view might he almost totally obscured.
Douglas George Hopkins, the fireman on the engine of the train, said that the whistle was sounded when the train was about 250 yards south of the crossing, travelling at 22 or 23 miles an hour. Witness saw the motor-car approaching the line when the train was 300 yards from the crossing. It stopped about three yards from the main line when the whistle was sounded and witness told the enginedriver everything was all right. Witness then looked at the railway signals and when he looked back at the crossing he saw the rear of the car just in front of the engine. He told the engine-driver to apply the brakes and the train stopped in 170 yards.
Cross-examined by Mr L. A. Charles witness said he was familiar with the crossing, as it was on one of his usual runs. On the morning in question visibility was good. From a railwayman’s point of view, the crossing was a good, open one. Witness for a moment lost sight of the car behind some stationary railway trucks standing south of the crossing as it approached the main line. Witness knew of no reason why the driver of the car could not have seen the engine had she looked in that direction.
Mr Charles said that the driver was on the other side of the engine and had no view of that side of the crossing. He submitted that no blame was attachable to the Railway Department or to any of its officers.
The Coroner then delivered his verdict. -Ashburton Guardian, 10/10/1944.
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