The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-02 00:00:00

FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE
SOUTH COAS I RAILWAY.
BRIGHTON, JUNE I.—We regret to state that a
melancholy and fatal accident occurred, on Monday
evening, on the Portsmouth Extension of the Brighton
and Chichester Railway. Rumour, as usual, had greatly
exat'gerated the result, it being reported in Brighton
yesterday morning that five, six, and even ten persons
had lost their lives. At the station our reporter learned
that the accident had proved fatal with regard to one
person only, and he proceeded by an early train to the
spot. In the train he had for fellow-passengers Mr.
Thomas Kirtley (locomotive engineer of the company),
Mr. Copley (the assistant manager of the railway), and
Mr. Acton (superintendent of the railway police), who
were also on the way to she site of the accident. Learn.
ing the object of our reporter's journey, the first named
gentleman kindly informed him that he was a passenger
by the train which, sustained the accident, and he volun-
teered the particulars which we here subjoin :
The train in question was a continuation of the two
o'clock down train from London. It started from
Brighton on its way to Havant at a quarter past four
o'clock, and kept its time with perfect exactness, leaving
Chichester at 20 minutes to six. Mr. Kirtley had gone
to Chichester by an earlier train to make arrangements
with regard to a supply of gas, and having finished this
business, and wishing to proceed to Havant for the pur-
pose of arranging for the departure of some extra trains
this morning, he stepped on the engine of the train, and
rode with the driver from Chichester to Bosham Pound,
a station three miles towards Portsmouth. Here he left
the engine, and entered a carriage in which were his wile
and child, and the train proceeded about a mile and a halt
forward, when a rumbling noise was heard, and the train
immediately came to a standstill near Nutbourne, half-
way between the Bosham station and the borders of the
counties of Sussex and Hampshire, at Emsworth. The
speed was between 32 and 35 miles, the road is perfectly
level, and the line straight. Without any apparent
cause the engine had suddenly left the line, the rails and
the engine being in the best working condition. It ap-
peared that the engine on leaving the rails rushed across
the up line at an angle of about 45, and tearing up the
rails in its progress toppled over an embankment about
four feet high into a ditch about the same depth, wheels
uppermost. The connecting irons which couple the
engine and tender having snapped, the tender was drawn
off the line only a few inches, probably by the jerk.
The luggage box was also just off the line, and had
mounted the tender, but none of the carriages were off,
nor were they in the slightest degree injured.
On the train being thus suddenly brought up, Mr.
Kirtley had the passengers alighted. The engine•
driver was found under the tender. He is supposed to
have fallen from the engine at the moment it left the
rails, and to have been struck by the train, and the first
wheel of the tender having passed over his thigh com-
pletely severed it. He was quite dead. His name was
John Gregory. He was about twenty-eight years of
age, and has left a widow and family. He was a very
steady driver.
The stoker, whose name is Henry Peel, was about
the same age, and he was also a married man, living at
Brighton. He was found lying close to the driver. His
right arm was nearly severed from-his shoulder, and his
scull was fractured, but he was still alive. He was re-
moved to a neighbouring cottage, where he was promptly
attended by medical men, procured from Emsworth.
,He
is in a desperate condition, but still some hope is enter-
tained of his recovery.
The only other person who was injured by the ca-
tastrophe was the guard, named Careless. He merely
received a slight shock, and is to-day nearly recovered.
From the spot where the engiue left the rails to its
present site is exactly eighty yards ; to the spot where
the tender and train stopped, sixty-five yards ; and con-
sequently the bodies were picked up about twenty yards
from the overturned engine. Tne tender is barely in-
jured, with the exception of an indentation of the water
tank ; and the luggage box had not so much as a
splinter knocked off.

So gradually,
although so rapidly, was the train
brought up, that the passengers did not suspect an acci-
dent until the train stopped. Mr. ley himself stated
to our reporter that it was his extensive knowledge of
railway traffic which alone led him to detect something
unusual in the rumbling noise produced by the engine
as it was tearing up the rails, The passengers were
promptly forwarded to their destination in vehicles pro
cured in the neighbourhood. About 20 of the rails
were broken or bent, and some delay was of course oc-
casioned to the subsequent trains. The tender was on
the rails in half an hour, and was the same evening re-
moved to Brighton.
The site of the accident is in the small thick wood at
the back of the beautiful little village of Nutbourne. As
described above, the line is perfectly straight and per-
fectly level; the rails had been replaced; and it was not
till a second look had been taken that he discovered the
damaged rails lying on one side of the very low embank-
ment, and the overturned engine in the ditch on the
other. Anything less like what one pictures as the site
of a fatal railway accident can hardly be imagined.
As to the immediate cause of the accident nothing is
known. An investigation will, of course, take place by
a Government engineer. The ballasting on the spot is
a coarse gravel, that which we believe geologists call
alluvial; and on looking at the spot an idea suggested
itself; that one of the larger stones might have been
accidentally or otherwise placed on the rail. A footpath
crosses the railway on a level, exactly midway between
the place where the engine ran off and where it stopped.
This suggestion is answered by the fact, that the engine
is furnished with "protectors," which would remove
from the rails anything of an inch diameter. A second
idea is suggested by an inspection of the engine. It is
one of Stephenson's last patents, but the cylinders are
on the outside, and some drivers dislike such engines,
because of their greater oscillation, or " wobbling."
Mr. Kirtley had an escape which may be regarded as
truly miraculous. Had he remained on the engines, as
is his custom, for the purpose of overlooking the line, he
would probably have shared the fate of the driver and
stoker; to his change at Bosham from the engine to a
carriage may he owe his life.
The body of the driver lies at the Bell and Anchor,
Nutbourne.— Times.

to the police per-
forming order of the
Secretary
lnt
placeer a t i o
relativeri
forming duty at the various Police•courts. The order came
into operation yesterday, that three constables be stationed
permanently at the disposal of the magistrates, for the pur-
pose of It, serving summonses, warrants,
and that they be
THE
POLICE.
hasA n
taken
exempt from all other duties connected with the police.
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