COLLISION BLOCKS LINE

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34087, 26 February 1976, Page 1

COLLISION BLOCKS LINE

PALMERSTON NORTH. Feb. 25

The Main Trunk railway line was still blocked in the centre of Feilding this evening after a collision between a light truck —the driver of which died from injuries—and a goods train about 2 p.m. today.

The collision left the engine and 15 waggons derailed and jumbled across the line.

The truck driver, who was thrown clear on impact, seconds before his vehicle was crushed almost flat between two careering waggons, died this evening in the Palmerston North Hospital. He was JOHN GUARD, aged 50. married, with a family, a power-board employee. of I eliding.

The collision occurred at the town's Grey Street level-crossing, about 300 yards from the town centre, soon after 2 p.m. Onlookers spoke of a thunderous roar and of seeing the truck pushed along the line by the front of the 78-ton diesel-electric locomotive.

The engine driver and his assistant, although shaken, escaped unhurt. The Railwav s Department’s area traffic manager from Marton, after an inspection of the tangled wreckage, estimated it would take at least 24 hours to clear the main line.

Among the wreckage was one of the Main Trunk’s computerised signal systems, reduced to fragments by a derailed waggon.

Arrangements are being made to deal with passengers booked on Silver Fern, Silver Star, and Northerner trips todav and tomorrow.

On collision, the locomotive jacknifed into the air, came to rest about 50ft from the main Kimbolton crossing, and fell over on its side.

Behind it, 15 waggons, two of them carrying live pigs, were thrown from the line in a massive pile up of twisted steel.