Hyde Railway Disaster - Aftermath

Aftermath

The isolation of the disaster site was compounded by wartime conditions and little news was published of the disaster. Relatives of the victims did not receive news of their loss until the next day.

A board of inquiry was established to investigate the crash. Based on the state of the wreckage, it found that the train had to be travelling in excess of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) on a curve with a speed limit of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) and had thus derailed due to the operation of centrifugal force. It found that the judgement of the driver, 55 year old John Corcoran, was markedly impaired as he had been drunk, and thus charged him with serious dereliction of duty. He was tried in the Dunedin Supreme Court with manslaughter, found guilty, and sentenced to three years' jail. The train's guard was reprimanded for not taking action when he became aware of the train's excessive speed, but he was not criminally prosecuted.

In the years after the disaster, it had little legacy as it was overshadowed by World War II. When a memorial was established to victims of the Tangiwai disaster decades later, relatives of Hyde disaster victims began to work for their own memorial, led by Molly Winter and Elizabeth Coleman. In August 1990, a committee was formed to erect a monument, a 2.5 m high cairn, at an easily accessible site near the location of the disaster. The cutting of the disaster itself can also be walked, as the Otago Central Railway closed on 30 April 1990 and has been converted into the Otago Central Rail Trail.

The disaster was the only significant accident involving passengers that occurred on the Otago Central Railway between the start of construction in 1877 and closure.