GHASTLY SCENE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 141, 17 June 1935, Page 7

GHASTLY SCENE.

HORROR OF DISASTER. Young; Nurse Heroine <of Rescue Efforts. MAJORITY OF VICTIMS WOMEN (United P.A.-Blectrlc Telegraph-Copy.ight) (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, June 10. The train crash was the worst in the history of the London and NorthEastern Railway. The parcels express carried few passengers and was travelling at 70 miles an hour at the time of the collision. The Newcastle express was carrying 200 excursionists, the majority being women. The first arrivals on the scene of the disaster saw a ghastly sight. There were eight overturned, telescoped carriages, from which moans and screams of the victims arose into the darkness. Toiling through a heavy thunderstorm the breakdown gang cleared the line at Welwyn by 4 p.m. . A nurse, Violet Miles, 22, after an escape from death owing to leaving her compartment where neighbours wanted to sleep, worked throughout the night tending the wounded. She collapsed and was taken to a restaurant, where she was revived. She is acclaimed as the heroine of the disaster. She lost her money and her. luggage in the wreck;. A man, who was not injured, became demented when he found that his wife and daughter were dead. Many women rushed from their homes to render aid, but fainted when they saw the appalling scene. ' i One woman, who was injured on being, taken to hospital, cried: "Where is my baby?" A nurse and a policeman hurried to the wreck and found the baby dead. The majority of the victims were women. W. Powell, the Welsh international footballer, was a passenger on the Newcastle express. Despite an injury he worked for hours rescuing others. Firemen using blow-lamps extricated the last victim at 5 a.m. The driver of the parcels train said he was travelling fast when he saw the Newcastle train ahead. He jammed on the brakes and watched the crash coming. Then he jumped. The guard of the leading train was killed outright.