From the Maidstone Telegraph 19 September 1868.

WATERINGBURY. Fatal accident on the railway.

On Friday last an inquest was held at the "Telegraph Inn," Wateringbury, before J. N. Dudlow, Esq., coroner, on the body of Sarah Snashall, a woman 66 years of age, (a domestic servant in the service of Colonel Fletcher at Kenwards House, Yalding and who lived with her family in the Lodge House on the estate) 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 foot way. 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.