TRAIN MISHAPS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16963, 12 October 1920, Page 7

TRAIN MISHAPS.

AN ITALIAN SMASH,

(By C-able—Press Association—Copyright.) (Australian and X.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, October 10.

Twenty-six people were killed in a railway accident on the Venice Causeway, including the Socialist. deputy, Signor Bombacci.

The Milan correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle" states that the Venice railway disaster was much more serious than was at first reported. Excluding the corpses recovered, many other passengers were hurled into the sea and drowned. No help was forthcoming for several hours, the passengers having to walk three miles to Venieo to convey tidings of the disaster. •

At a preliminary inquiry it was stated that the signalling apparatus was rusted and worked imperfectly, and that, a signalman was intoxicated. Tho signaJ [amp at the rear of tho train was so obscured by filth that the driver of a train bound from Trieste to Rome could distinguish the colour only a- few yards distant.

| THE FRENCH DISASTER. . I PARIS, October 10. The disaster to the Paris-Nantes exI press, was due to tho breakdown of a goods engine, the driver of which was I about to switch on to another track, and to warn the officials so as to enable the express bound for Nantes to pass. Owing, however, to a declivity, the heavily-laden waggons advanced beyond the points and obstructed the main line under a footbridge. The driver of the express, soeing the danger, applied the brakes and reversed tho engine, but the speed of the train was such, and the impact so terrific, that his engine and its tender climbed over tike goods waggons and capsized. Tho first two coaches were buckled one on the other and the third was lifted to the height of the footbridge, which cut trough the roof, making the accident more appalling, as tho coaches, like those of most suburban trains, had covered upper decks for outside sengers. The train -was crowded, mostly with workers who resided at Nantes. Six coaches were completely smashed. One crashed on top of a signal-box, killing tho signalman. Thirty-eight bodies have been brought to Paris for identification.