TRAIN CRASH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 259, 1 November 1937, Page 9

TRAIN CRASH.

RE-ENACTED IN INDIA. * PUZZLE OF DERAILMENTS. CALCUTTA, October 1. ■Spectacle of a«600-ton train hurtling at 50 miles an hour to destruction was provided at Jamalptir during official tests into the causes and nature of the derailment at Bihta, Bihar, of the Punjab express, when 100 people were killed. Plunging on after passing over a deflected rail, the engine leapt at a buffer consisting of 600 tons of earth. The noise of a heavy explosion and a momentary "black out" of flying earth, stones and timber followed. The first four coaches were telescoped and smashed to splinters. It is believed that this is the first time such an experiment has been carried out in India. Crowd* which gathered to see it were kept well out of the danger area. Earlier experiments were confined to slow derailments under a variety of circumstances. Examination carried out at Bihta by experts immediately after the disaster and the collation of data thus obtained led to certain lines of thought as to the cause of the accident. For a more detailed study of these problems, the circumstances attending the Bihta affair were duplicated as nearly as possible at Jamalpur. An engine of precisely the same typo was selected.