DIESEL TRAIN OVERTURNS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27874, 24 January 1956, Page 13

DIESEL TRAIN OVERTURNS

31 To 35 Deaths Feared (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LOS ANGELES, Jan. 23. A speeding Santa Fe railroad train, packed With servicemen and civilians returning home after a week-end in Los Angeles, overturned on a curve on the outskirts of the city last night, leaving a trail of death and injury. Company officials estimated that 31 to 35 persons were killed and between 60 and 70 injured when the two-car-riage diesel train ground along on its side for 200 feet, crushing some of its victims beneath it. Thirty-three deaths would make it the worst railway disaster in Californian history. A Deputy Coroner. Mr Charles Woodward, had estimated earlier that 47 were killed. Thirty bodies, many badly, mangled, were brought to the county morgue. Fifteen were male and 15 female. There were three 'children. Mr Raymond D. Shelton, general manager for Santa Fe’s coast lines, said the cause of the wreck was “undue speed on a curve.” “The engineer (train driver), Frank Parrish, estimated his speed at the time of the derailment at 50 miles an hour,” he said. “I think this curve wc*uld take about 40 miles an hour.” Parrish, aged 61, and a veteran of 37 years’ experience, said: ‘‘l can’t understand what happened. I blacked out just as we were passing the 35-mile-an-hour ‘slow down’ signal. When I came to, the train was toppling over.” Parrish, who was only shaken, was hustled into a conference by Santa Fe officials. Mr Shelton said there were 161 persons and a crew of five aboard the train, which crashed in the city’s south-east section 12 minutes after pulling out from Union Station at 5.30 p.m., bound for San Diego. None of the train’s five crew men was seriously injured. The train toppled over in a huge shower of sparks and skidded and scraped in the dirt on its left side along the railway right-of-way. Two sets of railway lines were gouged and torn up. Screams came from the cars as passengers were flung into heaps amid flying luggage and seats. The train’s guard, William Hines, said he escaped with his life because he was sitting on the right side of the rear car. •