ROASTED ALIVE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 848, 21 June 1910, Page 5

ROASTED ALIVE.

FRENCH RAILWAY COLLISION. RESCUERS HELPLESS, EXCESSIVE SPEED ALLEGED. By Telecr^ph—Preßfl Association— Copyright (Rec. June 20, 11.15 p.m.) Paris, June 20. Some of tlie victims in the Villeprcux railway disaster were pinned under wreckage, so that rescue "was impossible. The horrified helpers could only watch them roasting alive. Their cries were heartrending. The remains, in some instances, were collected in fragments. The work of extrication continued all niglit. M. Ernest May, a prominent financier, happening to motor past the station this morning, inquired anxiously, and found his son-in-law dying, and his grandson dead. . Of the first sixteen bodies recovered only five were identified up to. this afternoon. Many are only recognisable by their rings and other unburnt trinkets. The express, instead of travelling at a speed of fifty miles, was running at sixty-three miles an hour to make up lost time. DID NOT SEE SIGNAL. CONFLICTING STATEMENTS. Paris, June ID. Further details regarding the collision between the Paris-Granville express apd a slow train standing at the Villepreux station, westward of Versailles, show that the local train was stationary, owing to a breakdown. Many of tho passengers of that train had nliglited and were strolling on the platform, otherwise the disaster would have been much more severe. Tho driver of tho express had not noticed the signals. He declared that he was attending to the engine, which was not working satisfactorily, though there is evidence that tho express descended the gradient approaching Villepreux at a speed of between fifty and sixty miles an hour. Twenty persons were killed. Some of them were incinerated, and many terribly mutilated.