TRAIN DISASTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 136, 10 June 1932, Page 7

TRAIN DISASTER.

Passengers Killed in Station Collision. TRIAL BEGINS IN MOSCOW. (Received 11 a.m.) MOSCOW, June 9. The trial has begun of 10 officials involved in a hitherto unpublished crash which took place at Zelonaya on May 15, Two passenger trains collided at the station, which was converted into a shambles. Scores of passengers were mangled and many were unidentifiable. It is alleged that some of the officials were drunk and mistook the signals.

The circumstances of the Zelonaya crash recall a similar collision at Kossino. a Moscow suburb, on January 2, when a train speeding at 50 miles an hour crashed into another train which had stopped at the station after a drunken man had thrown himself in front of the engine. An express coming along the next line crashed into some of the overturned carriages, swelling the number of fatalities, which were eventually discovered to be 68. A fourth train was just stopped in time. The news of the tragedy was witlihelff until January 17, when the trial started. The etationm aster was sentenced to life imprisonment for neglect of signals owing to drunkenness, while several otheiofficials were given sentences ranging from one year to ten years.