SERIOUS RAILWAY COLLISION NEAR KINGSTON.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7157, 19 September 1888, Page 6

SERIOUS RAILWAY COLLISION NEAR KINGSTON.

A. railway accident of a disastrous nature happened shortly after midnight on August 6th, at Hampton Wick station, on the London and South-Western line. The immediate consequences were, unhappily, the deaths of five persons and the serious injury of several more. Traffic on this portion of the line was, owing to .She Bank holiday, exceptionally heavy, but it had beeß conducted all day with perfect safety, and the accident occurred, not to any of the excursion trains, bat to one of the ordinary trains, which was travelling with a large complement of passengers returning to Kingston from various stations between there and Waterloo. It appears that the pointsman on duty at Kingston Junction signal-box having to get away a light engine and a train of empties to the stations where they would be required in the morning, switched them by some mischance on to the down instead of the up line. The mistake was not discovered until it was too late to avert the calamity which ensued, and, strangely enough, the driver of the light engine himself did not notice that he was on the wrong line until he rounded the curve between Hampton Wick and Kingston, and until he had gained the bridge upon which the collision occurred. Two of the carriages of the passenger train were completely telescoped, one of these being the guard s van, and the other a third-class -carriage, in which several of the people killed and injured were travelling. Fortunately, the side girders of the bridge withstood the shock, or at least two or three of the carriages must have been precipitated into the Upper Teddington road, with results still more disastrous than those which have, as it is, to be lamented. The noise of the collision immediately attracted the attention of the porters at Hampton Wick and Kingston, and messengers were at once despatched in search of medical aid. Assisted by a number of residents who appeared upon the scene, the officials at once began the work of extricating the dead and injured from the wreck. The fireman of the passenger engine, William Ginman, was taken ont dead, and the driver, William Paeey, had sustained injuries of so serious a character that he died two hoars later. Mrs Mindenhall, tbe wife of a provision dealer at South Teddington, was killed on the spot, her skull being fractured in a ghastly manner, and the others killed were Mrs Figg, Rose Cottage, Franklin road, Norbiton, and Mrs Saddler, wife of a former ex-champion sculler on the Thames. Tbe injured were Walter Mumford, Elm terrace, Elm road, Kingston, whose left leg was fractured; Gertrude and Mary Hay, sisters, slightly injured about the face; George Peck, Hudson road, Kingston, both legs and skull fractured; Mrs Charlotte Gill, Henry's Cottage, Falrfleld, Kingston, injured in the spine; Mr and Miss Gill, son and daughter of Mrs Gill, eat about tbe face; and James Swaine, 7 Bed lion street, Richmond, who was, bowever, not so severely hurt as to prevent him from walking home. Tbe pointsman, Parsons, to.whose mistake the accident was due, is a man of forty-one years of age, who lives in a cottage near the station, and has occupied his position in the signal box at Kingston Junction for about seven Tears. When asked to account for his blunder, he simply had to confess that it was a blunder, and, practically, that it was inexcusable. In his own words, "It was a very busy time. I thought the driver of the light engine was going to the engine shed, having done for the day. I therefore fixed the points for another train from Waterloo. Bat instead of the driver going to the engine shed he shouted up to mc, saving ' I nave got to go to Twickenham. 'All right,' I replied, /look sharp F I quite forgot for the moment that the points were wrong. Of course, he ought to have noticed that he was going up the down line, and should have stopped? . Parsons, according to his own story, was perfectly sober, and bad had ample rest before going to his work. When asked if he saw the accident he said "It was dark, and it occurred round the corner, the other side of Hampton Wick station. I heard the crash; indeed, I listened for it. I knew the engine was on the wrong line, but I found it out too late to stop her."