Francis Kinney's family came from Hyde and he was working there as a farmhand when he boarded the train for Dunedin on the day of his death. He might have been going to the Winter A & P Show in Dunedin, or the racing at Wingatui on the long King's Birthday Weekend. Leaving the Hyde railway station, the train picked up speed - too much speed. Not far after the station it came off the rails on a curve in a cutting. Twenty one people died. It was, at the time, New Zealand's worst railway disaster.
HYDE TRAIN CRASH
LINE CLEARED OF WRECKAGE
SCHEDULE RUNNING TO-DAY
Rapid progress was made yesterday with the work of clearing the wrecked carriages and engine from the railway line near Hyde. The tracks were relaid, and this morning the Central Otago express left at its usual time, 7.52 a.m. After, the engine had been cut free from the tender it was loaded back on the line by the crane and towed to the Rock and Pillar station, the nearest siding to the scene of the accident, while late in the afternoon the last carriage was removed.
Inquiries this morning show that all the injured victims of the disaster are progressing favourably. The condition of Mrs M. Maskell, in the Ranfurly Hospital, which was regarded as serious yesterday, is much improved.
At the request of the Mayor of Alexandra (Mr A. McKellar) business premises in that town were closed this afternoon when the funerals of Mr John Frater, his daughter, Mrs Irene White, and her two young sons were held. Mrs Frater was among the injured, and is now receiving treatment in hospital.
Francis Robert Kinney, the young man of 19 of Hyde, who was killed in the crash, was buried at Hyde on Sunday.
MOTIONS OF SYMPATHY. The Mayor (Mr A. H. Allen) at last night's meeting of the City Council referred to the distressing disaster, and. at His Worship's suggestion, the council expressed its sympathy with the relatives of those who had lost their lives. The council further expressed the hope that all those who had sustained injury in the accident would soon be restored to health.
The executive of the Dunedin Returned Services' Association last night passed a resolution of sympathy with the relatives of those who lost their lives in the Hyde railway disaster and with those who suffered injury.
"I need hardly stress the fact that untold grief is felt by the members and the people generally to-day for the bereaved and sufferers as a result of the ghastly accident which occurred at Hyde last Friday afternoon," said the Chairman at this morning's meeting of the Otago branch of the Farmers' Union. "It was most unfortunate that so many splendid people should lose their lives and so many others be injured in such a tragic manner."
The following motion was passed by the Otago Trades Council: — "That this council deeply deplores the sad railway disaster at Hyde and expresses its deepest sympathy with the relatives of the victims of the tragedy, and hopes the injured will have a speedy recovery to normal health." -Evening Star, 8/6/1943.
HYDE RAILWAY FATALITY
DRIVER CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER
REMANDED TO SEPTEMBER 16
As the outcome of the fatal railway smash which occurred on the Otagu Central line between Hyde and Middlemarch on July 4 and in which 21 persons lost their lives, John Patrick Alphonsus Corcoran, aged 51, the engine driver of the train concerned in the accident, was before Mr J. K. Bartholomew, S.M., in the Police Court this morning on a charge of manslaughter. Mr E. J. Anderson appeared for the accused.
The full text of the charge against Corcoran was that on June 4 on the railway line between Hyde and Middlemarch, in Central Otago, he, by an unlawful act — to wit, by driving a railway train negligently and at an excessive speed — did kill Francis Robert Kinney and certain other persons, and did thereby commit the crime of manslaughter.
Chief-detective Holmes said that the accused had been arrested this morning and asked for a remand until September 16, when the case could definitely be proceeded with.
Mr Anderson asked for bail, and, the police offering no objection, this was fixed in the sum of L200, with two sureties of L100 each, accused to report weekly to the police. -Evening Star, 7/9/1943.
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