EXTRACTING THE INJURED.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 125, 27 May 1914, Page 6

EXTRACTING THE INJURED.

DIFFICUXTIES OF RESCUE. \VONT>F.R'KI I. KSCWPE*. 'An inin»ri*rtmjr tale of their experiences was told by Mcr*rK. I). M. Sutherland and ,lamey Jiorrie. two farmers from Waimate. South Canterbury, who were among the three uninjured occupants of the »lwper. :nu\ took a prominent part in the extrication of their companions. "We were in the last compartment, of tin- BleepiT," wiiJ .Mr. Sutherland, •'next to the srnokiiig carnage, and- we were awakened by the of the collision. This was followed by a wxirs of binnpe. which we afterward* attributed to the smashing of the woodwork as llie sleeper teleecoped. Ynn .-otild Ivear tho bumps coining nearer, and before he could move my friend was knocked out of his berth by something whreh crashed into the partition wall. The nvxl thing we knew was that wn were being siifT'.x-.Ued by gas. BP.il 1 got tip and pill, a boot through the glaet of the window. We managed to get, out somehow, and Mien we Mir that the postal van had ploughed right, through the slipper, ahd that the end of it had just, chopped short, of our compartment. If it had gone .i yard further we should certainly h-.ive been injured like the rest. T r.in along the tw:> carriages, smashing -.ill tin- windows I <-mild see, in order to lei the gan oul. The steam from the li eat in-g- pi pew wa« escaping with a 10-nd noise, l.vi someone cut off the supply almos; immediately. We. could ln*ar cnes for help coming fnrm {iTiiong the wreckage, and a party of im startitl in at once to get t.hem ont. "It, w;ls ffuite dark, and owing to the CBcaping gas we could not bring lamps near i!ie wreck for some time." hVCK WITH THE CAP. "All the lamps seemed (o be out when we went to bed.' , put in Mr Borrie, who is Mj- Sutherland's partner, "though possibly the one in the corridor was alight. I suppose all of them were jarred out when the crash came, and it is fortnnate that the escaping gas did not catch fire. If it had 1 don't think anybody in the sleeper would have been saved. "We pit a tomahawk from some workmen's huts near the line," continued Mr Sutherland, "and we started to chop the woodwork away. The guard's lamp and a bicycle lamp were brought along, and we caw that the postal van had pushed the occupants of all the compartments into a space of about nine feet, where they lay among a twisted mass of woodwork. It, was a difficult matter to get at them, as only six or eight of us could work together. There was always a danger of hurting one man while getting another out. and it was over two hours (■•fore we removed the last of them. Mr (irton Stevens was not removed for an hour and a-half. We found Mr Petersen lying on a seat with the ceiling lamp crushed into his chest. The woodwork had also come down upon his head, but he was alive. V\ c got as many bunk beds as possible out in to the. side of the line, together with blankets, a nd the injured men werp laid on these as they were removed. There was a Maori nurse on the train, and she worked like a Trojan. Mr Stevens seemed to have been nffeeied by the gas. ami T thought I saw them trying artificial respiration on him. He appeared to c-nnie round, but suddenly collapsed and died." "It is a wonder to mc." ohsorverl Mr Rnrrie. "that everybody in the sleeper was not killed. The postal van bored

right into it lietween the roof and the iluor. smashing all the woodwork to matchwood. The sleeping car porter had a marvellous escape, for he was found between the floors of the van and tho sleeper, uninjured. The postal officers, I was told, were merely ilirown from one end of their van to the other. The floor of our car. with the under-gcar. was quite intact." "You can trust mc never to travel in n sleeper at the front of a train after thi-." said Mr Sutherland, in conclusion. "In an ordinary carriage one has n chance of fretting out. but there is none in a flwp-