Fatal accident at Wateringbury station (1868)

Post date: Dec 05, 2011 11:13:47 AM

Reported in the Evening Standard 11^th September 1868

Fatal Accident: -As the 7.10 train from Maidstone to London was leaving the Wateringbury station yesterday, a domestic servant, in the service of Colonel Fletcher, was about to cross the line when observing the train in motion she stepped back to avoid it, but as the ballast train from Paddock Wood to Maidstone came along at the time on the down line, and before the unfortunate girl could escape, the engine struck her on the head, scattering her brains, and killing her on the spot. An inquest will take place this day.

The Sheffield Independant ran the story the following day adding the name of the woman killed as Matilda Snashall and saying 'no fault attachable to the driver'.

A report of the inquest followed in the Kentish Gazette on the 15th September 1868 as follows:

Fatal Railway Accident. —A fatal accident occurred on the South-Eastern Railway² on Thursday morning, within a few miles of Maidstone. It appears that the 7.10 up train from Maidstone to London had arrived at the Wateringbury station, and, after taking up passengers, was just proceeding on its journey, when a woman named Matilda Snashall, a domestic servant in the employ of Colonel Fletcher¹, was about to cross the line, and observing the train to be in motion, stepped back, when the ballast train from Paddock Wood came along in the opposite direction on the down line, and before the unfortunate woman couid cross the line effectually, she was struck on the head by the engine, completely smashing her brain. When the body was picked up life was extinct. No fault was attachable to the driver.

On Friday last, J. N. Dudlow, Esq., coroner, held an inquest at the Telegraph Inn, Wateringbury, on the body. Mr. Headley, chief of the engineer department at Maidstone, attended to watch the proceedings on behalf of the company. John Noble, a signalman and gate keeper in the employ of the South-Eastern Railway Company, said there was a public crossing close to the Wateringbury station. On Thursday morning the 7.10 train from Maidstone was three minutes late and had just left Wateringbury as a ballast train was coming up from Paddock Wood; he was stationed at this gate, and was holding up white flag as a signal to the driver of the ballast train, when he saw the deceased attempting to cross the line; he called out to her to stop and made as if to go to her, but she took no notice and stepped on to the down line just as the ballast train came up. The buffer of the engine immediately struck her on the side of the head and turned her round, when it struck her again, and she fell down in the four foot way he went forward as soon as the train was passed, and found she was quite dead. She was then taken into the gate house, where she was still lying. She might have seen the train if she had looked; there was nothing to obstruct the view in any way, only she had a large shade the front of her bonnet; she was a little deaf, he believed. Mr. G. W. Fry, surgeon, of Wateringbury, had examined the body of deceased, and said the injuries were quite sufficient to have caused instant death.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and added that in their opinion it was desirable that a man should be placed at each of these gates when two trains were expected to cross, as in this instance. Mr Headley promised to lay the recommendation of the jury before the Company, and he had no doubt that it would be acted upon.

A report of the inquest was also in Maidstone Telegraph of 19 September 1876 which gets the name of the woman correct as Sarah (not Matilda) Snashall. My thanks to Sue Carey, a descendant of Sarah, for contributing this together with the death certificate of Sarah which shows she was 66 and the date of death was 10th September.

WATERINGBURY

Fatal accident on the railway.-On Friday last an inquest was held at the Telegraph Inn, Watreingbury, before J.N. Dudlow, Esq., coroner, on the body of Sarah Snashall, a woman 68 years of age, who was killed on the railway the previous morning. It appeared from the evidence that about twenty-five minutes past seven, on Thursday morning, just as the train from Maidstone left Wateringbury, deceased was waiting to get over the crossing from Bow Bridge; she passed behind the tail of the up train and had just stepped on to the down line when she was struck by the buffer of an engine with a ballast train coming from Paddock Wood. The first blow caught the unfortunate woman on the side of the head and completely twisted her round, and she then received another blow from the engine which knocked her down lengthwise into the four foot way, and the whole train passed over her without doing any further injury.

P.C. Snashall, son of deceased, stated that she was rather deaf.

John Noble, porter, stated that he was at the station when the ballast train, which does not stop at Wateringbury, came through. He saw the deceased knocked down. If she had looked up the line she must have seen the train. She wore a large sun-shade.

Elon Dann, porter, said he was on the platform, attending to the passenger train, when he saw the woman struck. The signalman at the opposite side of the line was in his right place.

Samuel Turner, the engine driver, said he got to Wateringbury with the ballast train just as the 7.25 a.m. up-train left. He put on the whistle as usual on coming to the crossing, and seeing a train waiting at the station, he, in accordance with the rules slackened pace from 20 to about 14 miles an hour, in order to pass through the station. He did not see the woman, as his attention was taken to the passenger train, to see that all was clear. he had been four years a driver and sixteen years in the company's service.There is a curve round by the distance signal, but one can see the distance signal 500 yards off.

By a juror: If there had been a porter on the other side of the line he might have stopped the woman.

Mr. Fry, surgeon, deposed to seeing the body lying in the grip of the four footway. He afterwards examined it closely, and found a severe wound extending from the left ear to the back of the head. The whole of the scalp was torn from the top of the head. There was a fracture of the skull on the left side, with depression, and the right arm was compound fractured. These were the only injuries. Death must have been instantaneous. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death" with a recommendation that when two trains were likely to meet at the station, a porter should be placed on each side of the line so that both gates might be protected.

Notes :

1. The Fletcher family lived at Kenwards, Yalding.

2. South Eastern Railway (SER) had a poor safety record. One of their largest disasters had occurred 3 years earlier in 1865 at Staplehurst when an SER train plunged into into the river when the track had been taken up to allow maintenance on the bridge. The crash killed 10 people and seriously injured 40. Charles Dickens was on the train involved but in the last carriage, which did not go into the river. Dickens had previously set the fictional death of Carker in Dombey & Son (written 1846-7) on the SER rail line at Paddock Wood Station.

For other nineteenth century accidents in Wateringbury see also Child left home alone dies of burns, Drunk hopper drowns in Medway, Speeding Boy Racer Losses control on Red Hill, Fatal accident at Phoenix Brewery and Two work related deaths within days