Boy survives being run over by train

Press, 5 October 1985, Page 8

Boy survives being run over by train

PA Auckland A boy, aged 22 months, run over by a train at Hamilton yesterday, was in a stable condition in Waikato Hospital last evening. Mr Perry Hanara said he believed “something special” must be watching over his son Dan, who was struck by the train and then run over. The train driver then reversed off the boy. Dan sustained a bad bump on his forehead, a small gash to a knee, grazes to his stomach and a hairline fracture to a bone in his

lower leg. “It was bad news and good news all at once,” said Mr Hanara, who sat beside Dan’s hospital bed all day, “It is one of those absolute miracles you hear about.” Mr Hanara had just left for work at the Ruakura Research Station yesterday morning when Dan was run over by the train. “My wife Kathleen had been getting our other children ready for school. “They are aged eight, six and five, and she always walks with them to the end of our street and crosses the road with them. “Dan usually goes with

them in the push-chair.” Mrs Hanara had been “counting heads,” about to set off down the street with her children when she realised Dan was not with the others. “She heard the train whistle and the trains don’t usually blow their whistles round our place, so she knew at that moment what had happened,” said Mr Hanara. Mrs Hanara was just in time to see the train engine hit Dan and see him disappear underneath. The engine had been pulling a guard’s carriage and no other waggons.