Thomas (Ike) Taylor, navvy
FATAL ACCIDENT TO A NAVVY.
Dr. Watson, Borough Coroner,—assisted by a jury composed of Messrs. Lenard (foreman), Sayer, G. H. Morgan, Brewer, Dew, Goodchild, Orams, F. Chivers, Cooper, J. Davis, T. Knight, and Jenkins,—held an inquest on Friday night, at the Black Boys Inn, Newbury, on the body of a navvy named Thomas Taylor, whose death resulted from an accident which occurred as described by a labourer named William Jones, employed at the new railway works at Spring-lane, in the parish of Burghclere. On Monday deceased and witness were returning to Spring-lane bridge with an empty waggon. Witness jumped off to turn the points to put the waggon on the turn-out; the horse went up the wrong road, and witness pulled the horse into the road again. Deceased said he would unhook the horse, and on witness looking round be saw that deceased was caught between the bumpers of this and another empty waggon. Witness pushed back the waggon and extricated him. Deceased said, " Let me lay a bit." Witness said, " It's no use staying here ; you must either go to your lodgings or to Newbury." Deceased, who appeared very ill, was removed to the Tothill yard, and was afterwards conveyed in a trap to Newbury, and admitted into the Navvies Hospital. Deceased was perfectly sober. He was not married. Mr. Montagu H. C. Palmer, surgeon, deposed that on Monday evening he was summoned to the Navvy Hospital, and saw there deceased, who passed by the name of Ike Taylor ; he was suffering from collapse, due to a severe squeeze between ballast waggons. No bones were broken. The next morning the symptoms indicated that his left kidney was ruptured. He had recovered from the collapse, but complained of difficulty in breathing. Examined the chest carefully, and found congestion at the base of right lung. The chest symptoms became more urgent, and on Thursday morning be appeared to have died almost suddenly. Deceased bad been sometime in the Kingsclere Union under medical treatment, and witness had also attended him. He was not healthy, for in addition to heart trouble, other mischief had been caused to the system. He would have liked a post marten examination in order to decide whether death occurred from congestion of the lungs or more directly as the result of the accident. The Coroner remarked that he did not order post mortem examinations unless suspicious circumstances were present. Mr. Palmer would agree that rupture of the kidney was suflicient to cause death (Mr. Palmer assented). The kidneys were also not far from the base of the lungs ; while it was impossible to judge from a pinch of this kind the extent of the injury internally. Mr. Palmer—I am unable to say that the accident was the primary cause of death ; no doubt deceased died from the effects of this accident. The Coroner (addressing the jury)—You have to say how this man died ; and quite enough has been shown that he died from the accident, but for which he would no doubt have been alive now.
The jury quite agreed with the Coroner, and recorded their verdict that death was the result of an accident.
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