Simon Fibbes, 1884-11/1/1911. "Can't you save me, Tom?"

MOSGIEL RAILWAY FATALITY.

INQUEST ON SIMON FIBBES. 

Mr C. C. Graham, coroner, held an inquest at the Railway Hotel, Mosgiel, yesterday, into the circumstances attending the death of Simon Fibbes, a railway employee, who was killed at Mosgiel on Wednesday morning. Mr B. S. Irwin appeared for the relatives of the deceased. 

William Fibbes, skilled labourer, residing at Cavcrsham, identified the body as that of his brother, who was a e-inglo man, 26 years of ago, and a steady, sober man. 

Dr Allan, of Mosgiel, who examined deceased after the accident, said he found him lying in the signal cabin. He was still alive; he died in witness's presence. Witness examined the body, and found a compound comminuted fracture of the thigh bone and of the upper arm. There were other injuries, and the hemorrhage was extensive.

John Wills, locomotive driver, said that on Wednesday morning about 25 minutes past 8 he was engaged ibn shunting at the Mosgiel railway station. He got the signal from deceased to pull away and he moyed on, leaving some of the trucks behind which had been uncoupled. He did not know that anything was wrong until he noticed that the trucks were following on the same line as he was, instead of going on to a side line. Seeing that, he looked back and saw deceased lying on the ground, his leg being jammed between the stop-rail and the switch. At least eight trucks had gone over him. He was carried to the signal cabin, and the doctor came very soon. Deceased was then in a moribund state, and died in the course of half an hour. It was plain that after uncoupling the waggons he was in the act of jumping off either to shift the points or to make another split of the waggons, and that his foot had caught between the rails, and that before he could extricate himself he was knocked down and run over. The boot produced was found jammed between the switch and the stop-rail. It was a laced up boot. Had it been an elastic sided boot the deceased would have had a better chance of extricating himself. It had been a matter of among railway men that the use of elastic sided boots would considerably lesson the rate of accident, as it was not uncommon when shunting for the shunter to have his foot caught between the rails. He would not say this matter had been brought under the notice of the railway department. Where there was more shunting, as at the wharves, the shunting points were boarded over at the depression. This would lessen the risk of the shunter getting his foot caught.

Thomas Churchill, train examiner, who went to the scene of the accident immediately after it happened, stated that the deceased said to him, " Can't you save me, Tom?" Driver Wills cut the boot off, which was necessary to enable them to extricate the body. If deceased had had elastic sided boots on at the time he might possibly have been able to extricate himself, as he had evidently made a struggle to do so.

John Stewart, station master at Mosgiel, said the deceased was a sober and industrious man, and thoroughly reliable. 

The coroner found that the deceased died as a result of injuries sustained by being run over by railways trucks while employed in shunting operations.  -Otago Daily Times 13/1/1911.

East Taieri Cemetery.