By John McKechnie AO KC
On 26 May 1917:
- A series of tornadoes ripped through Mattoon, Illinois, killing over a hundred people and injuring many more.
- The second Australian division seeking to reclaim Bullecourt on the western front concluded the attempt with more than 7,000 casualties.
- On a calm and beautiful night en-route between Malta and Gibraltar, HMHS Dover Castle was torpedoed. Six stokers died but 600 wounded soldiers being transported on the hospital ship were saved.
- And Mr Sydney Colquhoun reported for work as a driver (known as motorman) for the Auckland Electric Tramway Company.
Thus begins our tale. The company started business in 1902 after some delay because the first three motormen who had been engaged in Sydney, drowned in the shipwreck of the SS Ellingamite on the way to Auckland.
By 1917, Electric Tramway Co had established tramlines throughout Auckland.
Mr Colquhoun was a well-regarded motorman had been with the company for eight and a half years.
His tram that dark evening was number 102, a nearly new tram in good order.
Among his passengers were Mrs Annie Birch, a widow, and Miss Lockwood.
The tram, heading for the Auckland terminus near the pier, stopped in Onehunga at Selwyn Street to allow a passenger to board. The conductor gave the signal that all was ready.
As was the custom, Mr Colquhoun leaned out and looked back along the tram to make sure all his passengers were safely aboard. To do this, he held onto a nearby stanchion. Unwisely perhaps, he also hung on to the control handle in his other hand.
Before the motorman regained his usual position of command, he released the air brakes and gave the control handle a couple of notches of power. This caused the tram to start forward at low speed. Unfortunately, this also caused the motorman to lose his balance and slip.
No big problem.
He had let go of the stanchion but still had hold of the control handle. He was still secured to the tram. But the control handle was worn. It no longer fitted lightly into its sprockets. The handle came out of its socket. Mr Colquhoun still had it in his hand. Suddenly, he was no longer securely attached to the tram at all.
Big problem.
Mr Colquhoun tumbled out the door and onto the road.
By now, the tram was about fifteen or twenty feet away, increasing speed on the downgrade.
He called out loudly in the hope of attracting the attention of someone on board. Even if he had succeeded so, it might not have helped much.
The conductor was in the middle of the tram, too far to reach the motorman’s station. And the control handle was in Mr Colquhoun’s hand.
He ran as fast as he could but was no match for the runaway tram which disappeared out of view.
When he reached the corner at the bottom of the hill, he came upon a terrible sight. The tram had failed to take a bend and left the rails, colliding hard with a bank.
The tram was badly smashed. Widow Birch was dying of shock. Miss Lockwood was badly injured.
So who was to blame?
“No one” said the coroner’s jury into the inquest for the late Mrs Birch though they recommended a chain across the motorman’s entrance to prevent him falling off and removal of advertising material in the tram which prevented him from having a clear view of the passengers from inside the car.
“No one” said the Court of Appeal when Miss Lockwood appealed against the dismissal of her case for negligence. The maxim res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself) had no application because everyone knew what happened. (Yes I know this doesn’t make sense.)
But perhaps motormen in future were a little more cautious before they released the brakes and applied power.
Adapted from Lockwood v Auckland Electric Tramways Company (1917) 1 NZLR 208; Inquest into the death of Elizabeth Annie Birch before a coroner and jury 7 to 8 June 1917.
