Epsom Journal - Tuesday 09 August 1898

SHOCKING FATALITY ON THE LINE

CHILD KILLED NEAR HAYWARDS HEATH

A shocking accident occurred on the line near Haywards Heath Railway Station on Wednesday afternoon. After the 3.5 p.m. from Victoria had passed through the tunnel a little boy fell out of a third-class compartment, was caught in the wheels of the train and mangled into a lifeless mass in an instant.¹

When Mr. Chard, the station-master at Haywards Heath, heard of the sad affair, he despatched two of his staff immediately on foot down the line, and afterwards sent an engine with Inspector Standing, and the body was brought back and placed in the care of the police.²

It was ascertained that the unfortunate lad was nine years of age, and his name is Ernest Lennox Head, of 290, York Road, Wandsworth. He was travelling with his mother, a widow, and a brother, from Wandsworth to Brighton, to visit Mr. and Mrs. Huggett. A son was travelling in the same compartment.³

It appears that the deceased was playing with the window strap, when the door suddenly opened and he fell out. A painful scene was witnessed when the mother was told on arrival at Haywards Heath that her little boy was dead.⁴

Footnotes

1. Haywards Heath Tunnel lies just south of Haywards Heath station in West Sussex, on the Brighton Main Line. Railway accidents involving passengers falling from carriages were sadly not uncommon in the 19th and early 20th centuries, before the adoption of safer carriage designs. ↩

2. Train carriages of this period often had doors that opened directly onto the tracks, without central locking. Children playing with door handles or window straps risked accidents, which led to eventual safety reforms in railway carriage design. ↩