51 Die After U.K. Train Jumps Rails

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31520, 7 November 1967, Page 17

51 Die After U.K. Train Jumps Rails

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, November 6.

The death toll in last night’s South London train crash rose to 51 early today after a number of the injured died in hospital.

Rescuers pulled 33 bodies from the crumpled wreck of the Hastings-to-London diesel express last night when it hurtled off the tracks near the Hither Green continental freight depot.

Ambulances ran a shuttle service to local hospitals as emergency squads rescued more than 100 injured passengers from the mangled wreck. But 18 of the victims died soon after admission. A police spokesman said that a total of 111 passengers had been admitted to hospital. Several were reported to be in a serious condition and a further rise in the death toll could not be ruled out, he said.

free some of those trapped. The chief of British Railways, Sir Stanley Raymond, immediately ordered a full probe into the cause of the disaster. He said the driver, who escaped unhurt from the lead coach, had already been interviewed by investigators.

tracks in a crazy-quilt pattern, and the right-of-way was littered with baggage, coach seats, broken glass and other debris. Medical teams administered pain-killing drugs to the injured and carried out on-the-spot emergency operations. amputating limbs to

Some experts said the crash was caused by days of heavy rain that softened the embankment, sinking the rails into the mud. The crowded 12-coach train carried mainly young people returning to their jobs in London after a week-end with their families on the south coast. The front diesel unit suddenly broke away from the rest of the train and rolled safely to a halt in Hither Green Station a quarter of a mile away. But the next four coaches smashed on to their sides, screeching along in a shower of sparks before slamming to a halt in a sprawl of splintered wood and tangled metal. The remaining seven carriages came to a standstill nearby, leaning crazily off the rails. Emergency Calls Within seconds of the crash, emergency calls were flashed to all hospitals, ambulances and fire stations in South London suburbs. Volunteer blood donors were roused from their beds to augment plasma supplies at nearby hospitals treating the injured as rescuers climbed up a slippery, muddy embankment to reach passengers involved in Britain’s worst rail disaster for a decade. Railway workers, firemen and first aid volunteers formed a human chain to pass survivors down to waiting ambulances, while the police endeavoured to clear a path through sightseers who jammed surrounding streets. Firemen and volunteer units using acetylene torches, crowbars and bare hands clawed into the debris in a frantic effort to extricate trapped passengers. Rescue work and emergency operations were hampered by a driving rain. Giant railway cranes lifted the battered carriages, revealing bodies and survivors beneath them. The shattered carriages spread across the ripped-up