HEAVY JOLTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 68, 22 March 1933, Page 8

HEAVY JOLTS.

PASSENGER'S STORY. "ALL VERY THANKFUL." RECOVERY FROM SHOCK. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") TE.KUITL, this, day. A through passenger by the derailed Auckland-Wellington Limited express gave his impressions to a "Star" representative on his return to Te Kuiti this morning. "I was awakened at 11.40 by a- series of heavy jolts," he said. "The carriages had the up and down motion of a switchback railway. I was seeking safety beneath the carriage seat when the train pulled up on an 'even keel.' The whole of the train passed over the washout of 20ft before the engine and two* carriages left the rails. -The heavy 701b rails and sleepers carried the weight of the train across the gap caused by the wash-out without breaking, although dropping a few feet with the passing of the carriages.: The depression caused the jolting, resulting in the . breaking of the coupling , between the engine and the derailed carriages. "The passengers, although alarmed, soon recovered from the shock, and we were all very thankful to get out as we did." The passenger told his story as he removed from a horse box a valuable young thoroughbred, which he had- purchased at Taneatua yesterday morning. "After escaping from a eerious motor accident the day previous, I am wondering if the gods are against me—l shall find out when the colt gets on the track," he added, as he went to seek a grass paddock where the horse could be cared for until the line to Carterton is clear for traffic.