AWFUL CRASH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 304, 26 December 1933, Page 7

AWFUL CRASH.

TRAINS IN FRANCE.

DEATH ROLL OF 195.

One Express Dashes Into Back

Of Another.

THREE HUNDRED INJURED. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 10 a.m.) PARIS, December 25. A terrible disaster occurred on Saturday evening when the second of two expresses bound from Paris to Strasbourg crashed into the rear of the first, which was standing stationary at the Lagny station, 10 miles from Paris. The latest casualty list indicates that 195 people were killed and 300 injured.. Of the latter 100 are in a very serious condition. Xo British citizens, so far as is known, were passengers on the expresses. The trains involved were crowded with holiday-makers. One left Paris for Strasbourg at 7.25 p.m., while the second left Paris 10 minutes afterwards and crashed into the rear of the first train. The second express was travelling at high speed and telescoped the earlier train. Fog Detains Train. The first train left Paris two hours late owing to the fog. The second, following almost immediately, rammed headlong through six carriages at such terrific speed that its leading carriage ■was turned upside down, the impact tieing into knots its 90ft steel girders 10in wide. The police arrested the driver and fireman of the express which crashed into the stationary train. The speed indicator shows the second express was travelling at 65 miles an hour at the time of the accident. A director of the railway company states that fog and Jrost caused the catastrophe. The driver of the oncoming express could not see the signals or hear the fog warnings. A preliminary investigation of the cause developed two hypotheses, that the stop signals did not work, or that the engineer of the second express was unable to see the signals in the thick fog. The engineer and fireman who were arrested are reported to have become mentally deranged when they realised the enormity of the catastrophe. A further disaster was narrowly averted when the driver of another express, mistaking red lights for green, had a presentiment of disaster. He glanced behind, saw the red light, and immediately applied the brakes 100 yards from the wrecked trains. Public Mourning. The President of the Republic, M. Albert Lebrun, declared a period of public mourning and cancelled various Christmas festivities. The dead include the Deputy, M. Victor Schleiter, Mayor of Verdun, M. Paul Morel, ex-Under-Secretary, and the Deputy, M. Henri Rollin. The lastnamed died in hospital. Three deputies, including' M. Godvani, were seriously injured. At least one family perished, namely, the parents and their three children. The bodies lie side by side in the mortuary at the Gar'e de L'est, Paris, which the President, M. Lebrun, visited to sh'ow his personal grief. M. Schleiter was chairman of the Franco-British Verdun Relief Committee. The British Ambassador, Lord Tyrrell, personally 'condoled with the President." The French Cabinet will attend a col' lective funeral service at the Gare de L'est on Boxing Day. A special train left the scene at dawn with 165 corpses.