ELECTRIC TRAINS COLLIDE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 207, 30 August 1905, Page 9

ELECTRIC TRAINS COLLIDE.

I t FERE BREAKS OUT IN THE DEBRIS. A HORRIBLE SCENE. By MaiL) LIVERPOOL, July 27. An electric express train on the Lancashire and Yorkshire road, bound from Liverpool to Southport, collided this evening with an empty train standing at the Hail Road Station, causing the death of 23 persons and the injury of many. The car of the express which was crowded was smashed to pieces and only six of its occupants escaped. The road was recently given an electric- equipment. This is the first serious accident that has occurred on an electric railway in England, and it filled with horror the numerous waiting passengers standing at tbe railroad station, who were spectators of the disaster. The collision lifted the first ear of the express completely off the steel frame and crashed it down again on the •unfortunate passengers, 20 of whom were killed outright. More of them would have been killed but for the presence of mind of a Liverpool architect, who, seeing that a collision was inevitable, shouted to bis fellow-pas-l sengers to throw themselves upon the = floor of the car. I Immediately after the crash the - wreckage burst into fames. The f mangled bodies of the dead and the - cries of the injured vainly beseeching b ihac they be extricated from the burnfe irq wreckage formed a terrible scene, t and many women on the platform faint--1 cd. The victims included several i women and children. Fortunately, the 1 number of fatally injured is comparal ttvely few. The ckiso of the collision is unknown.