The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-16 00:00:00

DREADFUL ACCIDENT.

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On Wednesday morning an inquest was held before
Mr. W. S. Rutter, of Manchester, county coroner for
the hundred of Salford, on the body of a young man
named Thomas Weaver, who had been killed on the
railway between Bolton and Manchester, on Monday
afternoon. The following are the circumstances of
this shocking fatality :—The Bolton Railway, as it is
generally called, was constructed about ten or twelve
years since, and though the works are generally of a
substantial character, there is one feature about the
bridges which carry the various turnpike and other
roads over it which-has often raised apprehensions in
the minds of thoughtful persons for the safety of pas-
sengers. These bridges consist of straight horizontal
beams of iron across the line, supported upon cast iren
pillars. Rows of these pillars, at each bridge, were fixed
between the various lines (hails, and were so near to
the carriages as they passed that any person leaning
thoughtlessly out of a carriage window was liable
to have his skull fractured by coming in contact
with them. Strange as it may appear, however, with
this danger in the way, on one of the railways having
the greatest amount of passenger traffic of any in the
kingdom, for five or six years there were fewer acci-
dents on this line than on any other. A few years
ago the line came into the possession of the Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire Company, who have sought to
remedy this objection to their line, and commencing
at the Bolton end they have removed bridge after
bridge to substitute others of a better construction,
till the work of reconstruction had reached Pendleton,
near to Manchester, where this accident took place.
Thomas Thornley, a companion of the deceased,
and witness at the inquest, described how the accident
took place. He said, Weaver lived at 72, Chapel-
street, London-road, Manchester, and on Sunday be
and deceased went by the railway to Bolton. They
took tickets at the Pendleton station, and deceased
had a gun with him of a novel construction, which he
showed to the railway porter at the station before
they started. They returned to Manchester by
the train which left Bolton at three o'clock on
Monday afternoon, in a third-class close carriage ;
and as the train did not stop at Pendleton, deceased
(who was anxious to let the railway porter know they
were returning) said to witness, " Jern, pop
(point) the gun at the porter." Deceased got his
gun out of the window, and then put his head and
shoulders out also, to do what he had stated. In a
few minutes they passed the station-house, and iu
another moment—for the bridge at Pendleton is not
many yards from the station—the unfortunate man's
head came in contact with one of the pillars support-
ing the bridge. 'Witness said Weaver's head re-
bounded from the pillar against the opposite side of
the carriage window, and he then sank back upon his
seat in the corner of the railway carriage. In a few
minutes the train arrived at the Salford station, which
is the Manchester terminus of the railway, and witness
perceiving that his companion was insensible, and that
his head was dreadfully fractured, and his brains scat-
tered about the carriage, called for the assistance of the
railway servants, and Weaver was carried to the
Salford Dispensary. The surgeon of the Dispensery
said, though Weaver was insensible when brought to
the house, about four o'clock, he continued to
breathe till about half past ten o'clock the same night,
when he died. The porter at the Pendleton station
was examined, and said he saw the heads of two men
out of one of the carriages as they approached the
station, but the motion of the train W:AS too rapid for
him to recognize them. He waved his hand and ges-
ticulated with a view to warning these parties to draw
their heads into the carriage. He looked after them
as the train passed under the bridge, and no longer
perceiving them, supposed all was right. He did not
hear of the accident till afterwards.
The jury found a verdict (after hearing a statement
from the company's servants similar to that above
given of the gradual removal of the pillars) to the
effect that the fatality was accidental, but expressed
an opinion that there had been unnecessary delay in
completing the work.—Worcestershire Chronicle.