MANY ASLEEP

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 6

MANY ASLEEP

LUCKY ESCAPES.

AWAKENED AT MIDNIGHT.

PASSENGER'S STORY.

Nearly all the 130 passengers were either asleep or dozing when thc trains crashed," said Mr. George Rox, one of the passengers on thc express, in giving his impressions of thc accident when he arrived in Auckland this afternoon. "We were awakened by the breaking of glass, the splintering of woodwork and the' hissing of steam."

ail! If Vi f T 1 °° cur red on cither inn i whloh was 1«» than l ™F\ da he addcd ' thc trains would ha VO rolled down steep banks about -00ft high. The tunnel prevented the capsize of the carriages, and no one uZ ■ H ° , tho,, » ht trains' rews had jumped clear juet in time to escape injury.

S , t scene immediately after the cra.sh, Mr. Rox said one tender was lying against the side of the tunnel, while the other tender was separated from the bogevs and telescoped 10ft into the old mail van on the front of the train. It was fortunate that the van was in this position as there was usually a second-class carriage in its place. Immediately behind the. van was an old wooden carriage which was undamaged. Three coal trucks were derailed like the tenders. £ h ,7®, A w *lt of three hours and a half, during which no one knew what arrangements had been made to continue the journey, but at 4 a.m. the sound of motor horns was heard from tho road in the vicinity and it was found that two buses and a number of taxia had arrived from Taumarunui. The passengers were shown out of the tunnel by flare* and down a path to the road. They reached Taumarunui at 5.30 a.m.

The line was on a slight incline near a bend, continued Mr. Rox, and the trains were not travelling fast at the time of the crash. It would be exceedingly difficult, he said, to clear the wreckage as it would have to be dragged out of the tunnel, and those engaged in the work would be cramped for space. A special train was arranged and the passengers Jeft Taumarunui for Auckland at 8.15 a.m. Mr. Rox Is manager of a North China troupe of acrobatic performers and i« well known in Auckland, where until recently he was manager of the Majestic Theatre.