NEAR TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 9

NEAR TRAGEDY.

ENGINE OFF TRACK. SLIP MOVING WHEN STRUCK. line still blocked. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this clay. The train smash near Paraparaumu was remarkable for the miraculous escape of the engine crew and passengers from conditions promising a serious tragedy. The slip was still moving when the train struck it. A mass of _ semi-liquid mud was struck by the engine when it was travelling at about fifty miles per hour and the mud flew in a great fountain over the road. A circumstance that averted a worse smash was that the locomotive when derailed went clcar off the line, so that the first carriage ran past it. A corner of the tender caught a side of the carriage and the whole body was torn off and flung to the other side, leaving the astonished passengers open to the storm. The behaviour of everybody was exemplary. The driver and fireman were uninjured and the former, who is a qualified first aid man, rendered invaluable assistance. There was 110 panic, though most of the passengers suffered a severe nervous reaction when the crisis was over. The scene of the accident was an extraordinary one. The great K locomotive, covered with mud from end to end, lay 011 her side, with the stripped car beside it and three others tilted over and jammed together so that the doors were unworkable. It was quite evident that if the engine had not fallen clear these would have been telescoped, with disastrous results.

No information as to when the line will be clear is yet available. Napier trains are running to-day via Wairarapa and others via Manawatu. The restoration of the heavy engine to the line is a formidable job, necessitating the building of a temporary track under it.