RUNAWAY TRAM-CAR
DUNEDIN PEDESTRIAN KILLED.
THUNDERS DOWN STEEP HILL.
FAILS TO TAKE A CURVE.
NO PASSENGERS INJURED.
(Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, This Day.
Out of control on the steepest gradient on all the tracks in the Dunedin electric tramways, the Opoho car thundered down Signal Hill Road at 7.35 this morning and, gathering speed, failed to negotiate the curve approaching the flat. Leaving the rails, it cut through the water channel, mounted the footpath, and tore through a paling fence, ploughing to a standstill in a steep section overlooking NorthEast Valley.
As the car crossed the pavement it ran down a pedestrian, Mr John Kenny, who resided two doors away, carrying him with it down the bank.
By phenomenal luck, none of the passengers nor the motorman, Mr Chapman, was injured, while the damage to the car is not extensive.
Mr Kenny, who was a married man without children, aged 50, was so critically injured that he died shortly after admission to the hospital.
Mr Kenny was a brass-turner wellknown in the earlier days as a senior cricketer. -Ashburton Guardian, 15/4/1937.
TRAMWAY MISHAP.
REASON FOR DERAILMENT.
CORONER’S THEORY.
Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, April 19. “We have it that the track, the tram, and its brakes were all in firstclass order. How, then, did the accident occur? The only feasible suggestion is that the tram was allowed to develop too high a rate of speed before the brakes were applied, and that possibly the brakes were not applied with the utmost efficiency,” said Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., at the inquest this morning into the death of John Kenny, a married man, aged 52, who was struck down and killed by a runaway tram on the Opoho line on Thursday morning.
“It is difficult to account for the occurrence otherwise than in the manner I have suggested,” added the Coroner. “My verdict will be that death was due to injuries caused by being knocked down by a tram car which left the rails after getting out of control on Signal Hill Road.”
Reviewing the evidence, the Coroner said that it showed that the tram had travelled a distance of 220 yards before leaving the rails and another 30 yards before mounting the footpath. The grade was a steep one, but the track was in good order. According to the evidence the tram came down the lull at a very high rate of speed. The motorman, Alfred Chapman, had said he left the terminus in the usual way, but when the tram had gathered speed both the magnetic and hand brakes failed and he was in the process of applying the third emergency brake when the tram went off the line. Two of the three movements necessary for this latter operation had actually taken place. The question was: How did the tram come to get out of control? Examination showed that both magnetic and hand brakes had not been put out of order by the upset and they were subsequently tested out over the same route and applied without difficulty. According to the tramways manager, there was no record of failure of magnetic brakes except in the case of a fault. -Manawatu Standard, 20/4/1937.
TRAM FATALITY
CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER.
MOTORMAN TO STAND TRIAL.
THE ACCIDENT AT DUNEDIN
(Per Press Association.)
DUNEDIN, This Day,
A charge of manslaughter was preferred to-day against Alfred Chapman, aged 33, driver of the tram-car that left the Opoho line and crashed into a vacant section early on the morning of April 15, inflicting fatal injuries on John Kenny.
The charge was that Chapman, by omission, without lawful excuse, to observe a legal duty, did cause the death of Kenny, thereby committing manslaughter. The depositions of the witnesses at the inquest were read over to them in the criminal proceedings. Counsel for accused contended that the prosecution must prove definitely — Firstly, that there was a legal duty to be performed by accused; secondly, that he omitted to carry out that duty. The summons did not disclose the omission alleged. In point of fact, Chapman was doing everything in his power to prevent the tram running away. The evidence showed that he applied the magnetic and hand brakes, that they did not work, and that he was in the process of effecting the movements necessary for the application of' the third emergency brake when the car went off the rails.
The Magistrate (Mr Bartholomew) said the information as it stood was somewhat indefinite, but in substance was a charge of manslaughter. It could be amended to be made clearer with the interpolation of “being the motorman in charge of an electric tram-car” at the beginning. He was of opinion that a prima facie case had been made out.
Accused was committed for trial and allowed bail in his own recognisance of £50. -Ashburton Guardian, 30/4/1937.
Brakes Again Fail
Tram No. 18, which recently got out of control on the Opoho hill, Dunedin, with the result that a pedestrian, Mr John Kenny, was killed, revealed a temporary defect in the magnetic brakes on Thursday which caused the tramway authorities to institute an immediate and searching examination. It is not likely that the report on the examination will be released until the meeting of the City Council on Monday night. The car, which is one of the small combination type, was on the St. Kilda-Castle Street run on Thursday morning, when its magnetic brake failed on three occasions. Later, when a test was made, the brakes apparently acted perfectly, and an exhaustive examination was commenced with the object of determining the cause of the temporary failure. -Wairarapa Daily Times, 30/4/1937.
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