The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-19 00:00:00

ACCIDENT ON THE TRENT VALLEY

RAIL TV AF

ATHERSTONE, SATURDAY EVENING.

The name of another sufferer from the terrible
collision which occurred on this railway on Friday
morning has been added to the list of the killed.
In our report of the accident which was published
this morning the name of Thomas Cooning was
mentioned as having received fatal injuries and as
being the only one of the injured not likely to re-
cover. It has since been ascertained that the correct
name of this man is Michael Vaughan, a drover.
The name of Alam, previously given as one of the
deceased, has been found to be incorrect, the body
being identified as that of James Renshaw. The
corpse in respect to which no name was given turns
out to be that of James Thompson. We are in-
formed by Mr. Oliver Pemberton, the surgeon in
attendance upon the sufferers, that the Post-office
clerks who were injured are doing well, and have
sustained no permanent injury. It is currently re-
ported, and we believe with truth, that one of the
clerks injured has within a very recent period re-
ceived compensation to the amount of £3OO from
the company on account of injuries sustained by him
on a previous occasion, while engaged on similar
duty in connexion with the Post-office. We under-
stand that a third Post-office clerk, who was in the
mail train van at the time of the collison, also met
with some slight injuries, and remains at Rugby.
It is now proved beyond question that of the nine
poor drovers who were in the van at the rear of the
cattle train which was smashed to pieces at the mo-
ment of the collision, not a single man has escaped
with his life. The total number of persons, there-
fore, who have perished by this dreadful catastrophe
is not less than ten. The two drovers named Mac-
donald, who were at first supposed to be brothers,
are not so nearly related to each other. The body
of Edward Macdonald has been identified by his
brother.

He had no sooner said the words than the collision
took place. The first person he saw after the col-
lision was the breaksman, and they thought it would
be best to stop the traffic on the down line. He
went to the Mancetter crossing and turned the
danger signal on. He called up the man who lived
there, made him dress, and told him not to allow
any train to pass. He then returned to the scene
of the accident. Several persons had asqambled,
and were endeavouring to extricate the dead. He
recollected the anxiliary white light before reach-
ing the Atherstone station, and he saw two others
between Tamworth and Atherstone. Two were on
the same side of the line. He had no instructions
at what station he should stop when he started-
A Juryman.—Could you not have shunted at
Poles worth.

Witness said he durst not shunt at Polesworth ;
there was no signal to protect him while he did so.
There was no particular time to leave Tamworth,
but he was understood to make the best of his way.
By Mr. Baxter.—The Irish tattle trains are sup-
posed to travel in the night, but they do not always
arrive at their destination before morning.
A Juryman.—lf the line had not been in a slip-
pery state could you have expected to reach Nun-
eaton before the train came up ?
Witness—Well, it would have been a tight run,
sir—a very tight run—but I should have made a
hard run for it. It would take 35 minutes to run
from Tamworth to Nuneaton.

Charles Clarke, stoker of the goods train, gave
corroborative evidence. The rails were slippery
on Thursday night, and he went to fetch some
sand at Tamworth. When he returned the train
was moving.
The inquiry was at this stage of the proceedings
adjourned. It had been suggested that Moorcroft,
who was present during the inquiry, should be re-
quested*to loave the room, but the objection was
overruled by the coroner on the ground that Moor-
croft ought to hear what was said against him, so
that an opportunity might be afforded to him to
clear himself.

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