ARRIVAL OF RELIEF TRAINS. IDENTIFICATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 178, 22 April 1908, Page 7

ARRIVAL OF RELIEF TRAINS. IDENTIFICATION.

RELATIVES AND DOCTORS IN WAITING. (Rec. April 21, D.25 p.m.) * Melbourne, April 21. 1 Little or no information as to tho identity of tho killed could be'ascertained,this miming, oiving to tho groat difficulty of identifying bodies which were, almost inextricably mixed up, as it were, in tho wreck 'of'.shattered carriages. Tho officials at Sui}shino had to leavo the work of identification to relatives. ■ . , When the first mortuary, train arrived at Spencer Street, an army of cabs , was waiting in the station. -Wagons wero drawn up in readiness, and doctors and nurses and ambulanco men wero waiting to render, aid. Anxious friends were patiently standing in groups, all making a weird picture in tho dim moonlight. . .. • ■ ; The bodies as .thoy lay ranged round tho walls of Spencer Strdet Station presented an awful spoctaclo. The majority wero. shockingly mutilated. ■ ' In tho course of identification somo heartrending scenes wore,witnessed. It was pitiful to see-grief-stricken relatives led away as their sad business came to an end- Soon tho identifications wero completed, and the bodios ■ were placed in coffins and romoved for burial. OPIATES NEEDED. j' In somo cases tho injuries were so terrible. ■ that the doctors had to administer morphia or strychnine beforo the wounds wore dressed.; In tho majority of cases tho injuries wero very serious, a. iporo than usual percentago consisting of fractured limbs, "shattered.-hips and thighs, knd injuries to tho spine, in addition to the inevitable suffering froiii shock. I Thero wore about sixty victims in tho first rolief train, eight of them being dead. Tho second rolief brought thirty-one dead and oloven wounded. Vory few of tho sufferers wero ablo to bo sont to their homos. Ono particularly bad case was-'that'of'a man with a fractured thigh, who had nearly bled to death. There woro a great many fractured, legs, arms, hips, and thighs. In somo eases tho eyes of victims had beon put ' out. There wero many cases of spinal injury, I and a great deal of shock. N The sights whioh met the gaze of tho [ J

anxious spectators as the .first relief train began, to discharge its, freight was enough to touch the stoutest heart with their pathos and tragedy. Tho s- spcctaclo suggested. a battlefield with its t-alo of victims.' Firat aid bad been rendered at. Sunshine. Broken limbs were in splints, bruised heads in bandages. Somo victims were apparently unconscious, some' showed the livid pallor, of deatli in their countenances,' the faces -of somo were covered with blood, and here and tlicro a poor broken head showed through an extemporised handkerchief bandage. Pathetic groans, broke from' the lips of somo of tho worst .cages as,,thoy were lifted into stretchers, evidencing the intense pain that the sufferers 1 were c-nduring. FIREMAN'S TERRIBLE DISCOVERY. When the Sunshine fire brigade turned out to extinguish the burning carriages, the first man to reach the.station was Auxiliary Fireman Laffan. Hp worked.: energetically I;to put out the flaming debris, and when it was possible to remove the imprisoned' passengers, amongst the first bodies .recovered were those of two of his sisters. , . . V Dr. Vox, the first medical man' to. arrive 011 the scene, graphically describes his inspection of.the dead>and .wounded while they were lying •, on the- Sunshine Railway i plat-, form. The spectacle that met his eyo was awful; There were telescoped carriages from which the railway officials were extricating dead bodies and living. - His attention was-first called,to in which an injured man was totally jammed between three partitions of. a car that had been smashed together,;-, concertina, fashion. It was ono of tho most ghastly sights lie had over witnessed. 11 : 1 , Every third or fourth , person lie came up: to appeared to be dead;; 'Amdhgst the;'first' 60 ho examined; quite '15 or 20..word'lifeless, and tho bulk of the wounded wero suffering from very serious injury.,. The dead in particular appeared. to. libve : received .'shocking", injuries, which musfehave- killed' themi.-out-! right. '