Terror under train recalled

Press, 19 August 1978, Page 1

Terror under train recalled

Memories almost forgotten were vividly recalled by a Darfield woman this week when a young Christchurch girl narrowly escaped being crushed beneath a goods train. Mrs A. E. Tossell was the same age as Carmel Anne Mills when she, too, was run over and dragged beneath a train.

Carmel, aged 10, was hit by the train at the Hornby rail crossing on Wednesday, passed under the cowcatcher, and was dragged more than 15m down the track. She escaped with only cuts, bruising, shock and a suspected broken ankle.

She was reported to be in * a quite comfortable condition in Christchurch Hospital last evening.

Mrs Tossell was not so lucky. She spent two years in bed recovering from her injuries.

Fifty-nine years ago, as a London schoolgirl, she was boarding an elec? trie train at West Hampstead station when the porter blew his whistle. The train moved off quickly, dragging her until she fell between the two carriages on to the middle of the line.

The train stopped and a young man crawled beneath the wheels to pull her out. However, another passenger told the driver there was only a dog beneath the carriage and he started the train again.

Mrs Tossell still recalls the feeling of terror as the train began to move again with herself and the young man still trapped underneath.

The young man’s new wife — he was on his honeymoon — ran screaming along the platform and managed to attract the driver’s attention. Mrs Tossell suffered spinal injuries and broken limbs.

“I still have nightmares sometimes,” she said. Although she still gets “a bit nervous” about coming to Christchurch on the West Coast railcar, she will make the trip to visit Carmel Mills in hospital.