CROSSING SMASH
TRAGEDY AT FAIRTON.
MAN AND WIFE KILLED.
EXPRESS TRAIN HITS CAR.
WOMAN SHOCKINGLY MUTILATED
SECOND FATALITY AT SAME PLACE.
A man and liis wife, living at Seafield, were killed outright in a shocking crossing smash between the south-bound express train and a motor-car on the crossing just south of the Fairfield Freezing works shortly after 10 o’clock this morning. The woman was shockingly mutilated, and identification was impossible except from small fragments of clothing.
The victims were Mr and Mrs John McDonald, of Seafield, where Mr McDonald owned a farm.
The express train was hauled by two engines and was travelling at between 55 and 60 miles an hour as it came to the crossing. A motorist coming to the line from the east pulled up to allow the train to go past, and while he was there Mr McDonald drove up from behind him and was just on the line when the first engine caught his car.
The impact was so terrific that the occupants of the car must have been killed instantaneously. The motor-car was impaled on the cow-catcher of the engine and was carried along for about a quarter of a mile, at which point the train was brought to a standstill. Half-way between this point and the crossing the engine of the car was deposited on the right-hand side of the line.
The car was torn to pieces in the distance between the crossing and the place where the train was stopped, and practically everything about it was smashed or twisted. It was so tangled in the front of the engine that it took about three-quarters of an hour to free it.
Mr McDonald’s body was still in the vehicle when it was removed from the front of the engine, but Mrs McDonald had apparently been thrown out soon after the collision and was dragged along for nearly a quarter of a mile, being literally cut to pieces by the wheels of the engines.
Mr and Mrs McDonald had three sons — one who went to camp at Papakura recently, one working on a farm at Lauriston, and one a pupil of the Ashburton Technical High School.
The engine of the train which struck the car this morning sustained damage which necessitated it being changed at Ashburton.
Trees growing on the east side of the railway line at the crossing partially obscure the view of the line, especially to the south, for motorists approaching from the east, but the line of trees on the north side ends a good distance from the roadway and there should he ample space for drivers of cars to note the approach of a train from that direction.
An inquest for the purposes of identification was held this afternoon, the District Coroner (Mr E. C. Bathurst) presiding.
Mr John Mitchell, of Seafield, gave evidence.
The inquest was adjourned sine die.
This is the second double fatality at the same crossing in the last two years, the first being on February 28, 1939, when Mr and Mrs Martin Baker were killed when their car was struck by a south-hound express engine in circumstances similar to those of the fatality to-day. -Ashburton Guardian, 4/2/1941.
DEATHS.
McDONALD — On February 4, 1941, at Fairton, John, beloved husband of Kate McDonald, of Seafield. (Result of an accident.)
McDONALD — On February 4, 1941, at Fairton, Kate, beloved wife of John McDonald, of Seafield. (Result of an accident.) -Ashburton Guardian, 5/2/1941.
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