Railway Passengers' Insurance Company for £1000. On
his right temple there was a small incised wound, and
the surrounding parts-were suffused with blood; the
right fore-arm was fractured; and there was a dislocation
of the vertebræ of the neck—the latter alone sufficient
to cause instant death. From an examination of
the road, it appeared that the carriages had been running
on the ballast for a quarter of a mile before the coupling
broke and the carriages mounted the bank: the rails
were not at all damaged, and the transoms on which the
longitudinal sleepers rested were not much cut until just
before the carriages ran off the road. Mr. Simonds, a
Director, who was travelling in the train, stated that he
noticed nothing peculiar or irregular in the train. The
Board had inquired into the accident; they were
perfectly at a loss to what to refer it. Every precaution was
adopted on the line to prevent disasters; servants proved
to have committed faults were at once dismissed. Mr.
Brotherhood, a contractor for maintaining the permanent
way in the Bristol district, a passenger, said that he could
not in any way account for the accident. Turner, the
travelling porter, described the accident as he witnessed
it: he suggested as a cause the breaking of the "scroll
iron," which goes through the end of the carriage to
maintain the spring. Coroner—"Can you recommend
nothing for the prevention of a similar accident in
future?" Witness—"I don't see that anything more
can be done than is done. We have the means of instant
communication with the driver, and every possible
precaution is taken to prevent accident." "Can you state
whether the couplings were broken when you first saw
a carriage off the rails?" "I believe they were not then
broken." The rails were in a good state at Ealing. This
witness and the driver estimated the speed of the train
at from forty-five to forty-eight miles an hour. The train
had kept proper time. The driver could make no
suggestion, and could not tell whether the scroll iron or
the coupling broke first. Mr. Brotherhood, the contractor,
was recalled. He said he was acquainted with
the qualities of iron, and considered that of which the
"scroll " and couplings were formed to be very good.
The weather on the day of the accident was, however,
very bad for metal. He had seen a bar of the same
thickness as the "scroll iron," and five feet long, broken
on a frosty morning by falling on a stone out of a
navigator's hand. Coroner—"That does not say much for
the safety of iron bridges. It is, however, doubtless
quite true. Even human, bones are more liable to
fracture in frosty weather than any other. How do you
account for the end of the link of the coupling-chain
being torn away?" Mr. Brotherhood—"I believe this
was done by a sudden shock when the wheels of the first-
class carriage bounced against the transom. The coupling
itself was strong enough for a train five times the weight
of the express. It is not possible to screw up the carriages
too tightly, as there is a spring draw-bar in the bed of the
carriage, against which the coupling acts. Had not the
coupling broken, it is very possible no accident might
have occurred. I have known a four-wheeled truck go
off the rails, and run for miles without causing any
injury." Mr. Gooch, locomotive superintendent, agreed
with Mr. Brotherhood as to the probable cause of the
accident. In summing up, the Coroner remarked that
the Jury might naturally assume that the greatest care
would have been exhibited in working a train in which
so many officers of the Company were known to be
travelling. Although unsatisfactory as to the cause of
the accident, yet the investigation would not, he thought,
be without some advantage to the public. It is a
remarkable fact, that when persons travelling in a railway
carriage become alarmed, the first thing they do is
to look out of window: nothing could be more dangerous,
for if an accident happened, they receive injuries from
their head knocking from one side of the window to the
other. From the appearance of the right temple, he had
no doubt that such was the case with the unfortunate
deceased gentleman. The Jury gave a verdict; of
"Accidental death." The Foreman stated, on behalf of
his brother jurors and other inhabitants of the
neighbourhood, that it was considered that the down-line of
rails near where the accident occurred were in a very
imperfect state: the Foreman would not have felt at all
surprised had the accident occurred on the down-line.
Mr. Tyrrell, the traffic superintendent, promised that
every attention should be paid to the matter.

A frightful and disastrous Railway Accident took
place on the Lancashire and Yorkshire line, near
Manchester, on Friday the 4th instant. An express train of
eight carriages left Bolton Junction with passengers
from Liverpool and Edinburgh a little before six in the
evening, for Manchester. When it entered the cutting
at Dixon Fold, it rocked a good deal in passing along
the curves; and shortly after the engine went off the
rails, turned partly round, and fell across the line.
Three of the carriages were hurled off the rails, smashed
to pieces, and scattered some on one embankment and
some on the other. One of the driving-wheels of the
engine had been broken short off, and the engine itself
was a complete wreck, Croston, the engine driver, was
found beneath the locomotive, dead. One of the arms
of Wood, the stoker, was broken. Simmons, a coke-
man, who was on the engine, was killed. Mr. Barbour,
of Edinburgh, was in one of the carriages, with his
wife, three children, and two female servants; they
suffered fearfully: the second child was killed; Mr.
Barbour received a slight concussion of the brain; the
collar-bone of Mrs. Barbour was fractured, and she was
badly bruised; the eldest child was much scalded, and
died on Sunday; the youngest, an infant, was taken
out of a deep drain, alive; one servant suffered a
compound dislocation of the ankle-joints, necessitating
amputation of the foot; the other was bruised on the
spine. Mrs. Barbour was thrown from the carriage,
and after remaining insensible for a time, and finding
herself on recovering consciousness lying across the rails,
and fearing that in the darkness some train might run
over her, she succeeded in crawling to one of the banks;
here she lay upon the damp cold earth, perfectly sensible,
but unable to rise, for nearly a couple of hours, before
any assistance could be rendered her: by her side lay
the corpse of her second child. She did not know that
her infant had been saved till late at night, as it had
been conveyed to a neighbouring cottage. Mr. Cratti,
a Greek merchant from Glasgow, had compound
fractures of both legs. Mr. Martin, a traveller, from
Cornwall, had an arm and two ribs fractured. Mr.
Fitton, a cotton-spinner of Oldham, had a leg broken.
Mrs. Horrock's foot had to be amputated, in
consequence of a compound dislocation of the ankle. Mr.
Kay, of Prestwich, had a thigh broken. Pugh, a
shoe-maker of Salford, both bones of the left leg
fractured. Several other passengers were hurt, but not
so seriously. Nearly three hours elapsed before the
sufferers were conveyed to Manchester: both lines of rails
being blocked up, trains coming from Bolton could not
pass forward; a guard, who was himself hurt, had to
walk a distance, of more than six miles, to give notice;
and then some little delay occurred before surgeons,
officers, and workmen, could be despatched from
Manchester in a train: thus the wounded people were
sitting or lying on the wet banks for a long time. An
inquest was commenced on Monday, the 7th. Livesey,
the guard, noticed nothing particular until the engine
went off the rails: there was a little oscillation; they
were going at about thirty or thirty-two miles an hour.
The road was in bad order. Bateson, the second guard,
said the speed was about thirty miles an hour. He had
not noticed any unusual oscillation. But Mr. Gregg, a
passenger, was "convinced the speed was not less than
forty miles an hour." The oscillation was much greater
than usual. "I travel (he said) by that line once a
week on an average: there is more oscillation,
unsteadiness, and irregularity of speed, upon it, than
upon any other line I travel by. Before the accident
occurred, my impression was that we were extremely
unsafe—rather more so than usual." Mr. Belshaw,
another passenger, corroborated this statement as to
speed and oscillation. He remarked to a gentleman,
"Good gracious! this is very dreadful—we shall be off
the line!" The gentleman, who turned out to be Mr.
Badge, the storekeeper of the railway, replied,
"There is no danger—we are only going a little
quick." Mr. Badge gave similar evidence on the
inquest. The train was going about twenty-five or
thirty miles an hour. He apprehended nothing. Mr.
Blackmore, an officer of the company, stated that the