Main Trunk Disaster.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17809, 7 July 1923, Page 14

Main Trunk Disaster.

Comment on the Main Trunk disaster can include little more at this stage than sympathy for the sufferers. It is the worst railway smash the country has ever had, and unlike other accidents it haa not been minimised by later news. It is certain that fifteen people have been killed, a large number gravely injured, and the only occasion on which New Zealonders hove suffered aa severely as that while travelling by rail was when a troop train was telescoped in South Africa twenty-one years ago. Aft a mark of respect to the dead, and of sympathy for the maimed who still live, Parliament adjourned yesterday for four hour 9, and it goes without saying that the country's emotion, when the time comes, will be expressed also in another way. But in the meantime we can do little but admire the courage of the sufferers, the coolness in such unnerving circumstances of the railway officers, and the prompt response of the settlers in the district to the call of human distress. It is a feature of Biich accidents — though in this case it does not seem to have been a cause —that they happen in the worst weather and in the dark; but the other circumstances which ar& so often preeent—paralysis, stupefaction, and confusion, with painful delays in relief measures —seem to have been entirely absent. Distressing beyond measure though the tragedy is, there is comfort iut the fact that there was no failure in a human sense. And if it is too soon yet to attempt to form an opinion as to the cause, it is clear that one question winch will have to be asked is vrhether it is safe in such country to run night expresses without a more frequent patrol service. Tha Department haa done unusually well in maintaining a double service, and pinning it to scheduled! time, in the most difficult terrain anywhere in Australia, or New Zealand. It is indeed a striking tribute to the regard which the Department lias shown for human life that in a country eo adapted for accidents there have been so few big smashes, and relatively bo few of any kind. To realise how carefully and safely our railways are run, we have only to re Beet that until yesterday there had never been a single accident with greater loss of life than may result (and has resulted) from an over-

turned motor-car. But the fact remains, all the same, that there is a stretch of country north and south of Ongnnie which will never he safe after heavy rains and frost&, and it may ho necessary both to restrict the weight of trains passing through in had weather, and to send patrols at no groat distance ahead. It is, we believe, the case that on the Otago Central line, owing to the danger at certain seasons from falling rocks, passengers are not carried on. night trains at all; and since they must bo carried by night on the Main Trunk lino, safety may mean doubling the per-manent-way staff whenever the country begins to "'creep" after rain. _But it must be emphasised at the same time that .there is no warrant for uneasiness as to the safety of railway travelling in world in which there is a more anxious 'the safety of railway travelling in .general. There is no country in the world in which there is a more anxious avoidance of dangerous speed, reckless loading, neglected bridges, tunnels, or tracks. Statistics, which do not yield to panic, prove that it is actually safer to live in a train than to rido in a motor-car or be constantly crossing streets on foot.