THE BARBERTON RAILWAY FATALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 110, 10 May 1902, Page 5

THE BARBERTON RAILWAY FATALITY.

FULL ACCOUNT OF THE

DISASTER.

EIGHTY KILLED

AND WOUNDED

Papers from South Africa received this afternoon via the South contain the following- account of the Barberton railway disaster, in which a large number of New Zealand troopers lost their lives, and others were seriousjy hurt:

BARBERTON, April 3.—(Reuter.)— In connection with the railway accident, the detachment of the Hants Regiment in the train comprised 36 men of the Volunteer Company, under Captain Grant and Lieutenant Holbrooke; of these ten were killed and twenty-five wounded; thirty men of E Company, under Lieutenant Parker, of whom twenty-four were killed and four wounded; thirty-one of G Company, of whom six were killed and nine wounded. One man each was killed from B and D Companies, making a total of eighty killed and wounded out of one hundred and two starting.

No officers were injured,

Corporals Childs and Henty were the only non-commissioned officers killed; all the others were privates.

The engine-driver, named Rankin, wa.s killed on the spot, while the stoker, a Mauritian, died unconscious on the way to the hospital.

A civilian named White jumped from the carriage, and was killed against the bridge. One Dutch child has since died. The accident occurred four miles from Barberton, at the sharp curve leading on- to the bridge, over a donga 40 feet deep.

At the end of the three miles down incline the train had attained a speed of over eighty miles per hour. The engine first left the rails, turning completely over, and then the boiler burst. Six trucks, containing soldiers, were hurled with terrific force twenty to thirty yards from the line, and smashed to matchwood, three lying all in a heap. One caught the corner of the bridge, and fell into the donga. Twenty-two dead bodies were taken from here. The passenger coach, with several women, children and men, had a most miraculous escape. The wheels left the rails, and the coach ran across the bridge on the girders, within three inches of the edge. All must have been killed had it followed the soldiers' trucks into the donga. This would have happened had not the guard (Ross) kept the brake down, after the engine and front trucks left the rails. With the exception of the Dutch child and a passtenger badly cut about the head, all the passengers escaped with a severe shaking, although the carriage was completely smashed. There . are,, how in hospital' two dangerous and six serious cases. Thirty others are doing "\sjell. The regiment was very popular during its year's stay here, and deep gym-, pathy is felt by the whole community over the terrible calamity. The cause of the engine getting but of control is still Unknown. BARBERTON, March 31. Corporal Charles and 38 men of the Hampshire Regiment were buried in Barberton cemetery yesterday. The service was read most impressively by Major Crofts. Two others died during the day. The majority of injured in the hospital are doing well. This accident, cqupled with Mr Rhodes' death, has cast a gloom over the whole community.