One killed and many injured in Eastleigh train accident

William Helsey, 40, died instantly after a rear carriage left the rails and overturning had its roof ripped off. He was hurled to one side and suffered extensive head injuries when it struck a points box. Though he was swiftly extricated from the wreckage and rushed to the waiting room for treatment, he was beyond hope and had died.

Nine months later she sued the operators, the London and South Western Train Company, for negligence amid allegations the excursion had tried to beat a rival service from Southampton into the station.

Helsey, a London steel, copperplate and lithographic printer, had been travelling home with his wife and niece following a day out at the seaside.

The train, which had left Portsmouth at about 7pm, reached the newly opened Bishopstoke Junction - changed in 1923 to Eastleigh station - without incident but as it was crossing points, the rear first class and third class carriages as well as the guards van suddenly ran off the rails. The third class compartment containing about 30 passengers was flung onto its side after getting uncoupled.

Miraculously no one else was killed but Helsey’s young niece sustained serious injuries to her left arm and shoulder with the skin ripped off to expose ligaments and bones. However, she had sufficiently recovered to accompany her badly bruised aunt to the inquest conducted by County Coroner J H Todd at the Junction Hotel in Eastleigh the following afternoon, June 21, 1858.

Before evidence was taken, jurors visited the crash scene where they were told no repairs had been carried out and trains had continued to use the line.

Eliza Helsey, who had been sitting opposite her husband, said he had been enjoying the Hampshire countryside views until he started feeling a draught from the open window and no sooner had he got out of his seat to close it, the crash happened.

“As we were approaching Bishopstoke station the carriage turned like a top. After it went round, we all fell into a heap and the carriage fell over on one side on a sort of iron box on the line. I fell by the side of him. All the people fell together. I felt some iron beneath his head which was crushed and bleeding and the brain protruding. He never spoke or moved again.”

Paying tribute to the rescuers who had rushed from the platform, she said: “Everything that possibly could have been done, was done. I cannot tell you how I got out. Everyone was kind and civil to us.”

Among them was doctor William Tilbury-Fox who had been travelling on the other service.

“Before it stopped, I saw the Portsmouth train coming in. I saw them shutting off the steam a long way down the line. We pulled up and shortly afterwards I saw some confusion on the line. I heard someone say there was a carriage overturned and I got out and walked up the line. I found a third class carriage on its right hand side.

“Railway people were engaged in getting people out. The roof was broken away and then I saw the deceased lying on his left side with his face downwards on the ground. I saw at once he was dead, his head being extensively fractured. I saw an iron bar, which was lying on the upper side of his head and forced into it as though it were a groove.”

John Gibbons, who had been driving the 18 carriage excursion, was adamant it was only travelling at about 8mph after the steam had been shut off about two miles away.

“Did you observe any unusual signal?” the coroner asked.

“No,” he replied. “The first thing I felt was a jerk. After we had passed the curve at the crossing I felt it. I was through the points about 20 yards when I felt it. Immediately afterwards a man was standing in front of the engine holding his hands which meant for us to stop.”

He immediately reversed the engine and stopped within 20 yards, and having dismounted, saw people being removed from the overturned carriage. He inspected the line where he felt the “jerk” but found nothing to account for the accident.

“The jerk took place where the carriages separated and went part on one line and part on the other. The pointsman was at his proper place as usual. If the pointsman had let go before all the carriages had passed over that would not have accounted for the accident.”

Pointsman John Titheridge said he had properly carried out his duty and had signalled to his colleague whose duty was to take off the stationary signal to let the train pass.

“I saw 14 go on the right line, one off the line and two on the wrong line. There might have been another off but I did not notice it. There was another train from Southampton and I had to stop it at the points. I cannot account for the carriages separating from each other. I examined my points and the rails generally and found nothing wrong.”

The coroner concluded there had been no misconduct and no blame could be apportioned which led to jurors returning a verdict of accidental death.

But the widow, who had also told the inquest she could not account for the crash, did not accept their finding and after taking legal advice, sued the train operators in the Court of Common Pleas the following March.

She and other witnesses told the hearing the excursion had been driven slowly until it reached Fareham where it suddenly accelerated, reaching speeds of about 60mph and giving them the impression the driver was racing the Southampton train to enter Bishopstoke station first.

It was also claimed on her behalf the track had not been properly maintained with the rail being too deep for the gravel and when the train took the curve near the station, the carriage went off the line which caused her husband’s death.

The defendant company vigorously rejected both insinuations, stressing there were strict regulations as to which should enter the station first and there could be no question of racing.

The judge then stunned the barristers by surprise, suggesting in his summing up there must have been some fault in the carriage, a fact to which neither had alluded. The company’s lawyer Mr Milward said they had witnesses in court to prove the carriage was in full working order but they had not been called as his opponent had not imputed that.

A juryman however echoed the judge’s thoughts, saying it had occurred to him the state of the carriage was a matter of fundamental importance and he had made a note of it.

In the circumstances Milward asked for the hearing to be adjourned but the judge rejected his submission.

The jury retired before finding in the widow’s favour and awarded her the sum of £750 (£29,000 in today’s money) damages.