FATAL ACCIDENT AT BATH.

Evening Post, Volume XV, Issue 181, 4 August 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

FATAL ACCIDENT AT BATH.

The centenary celebration of the Bath and West of England Society's Exhibition at Bath, the city of its birth-place, has, when in the zenith of its success, been greatly marred by a terrible calamity. A foot-passenger bridge over the Avon, connecting the Widcombe or southernmost part of the borough with its centre, and which stood exactly opposite the down platform of the Great Western station, gave way suddenly on the 6th June when it was occupied by a crowd numbering from 150 to 200 persons, and great loss of life and injury of body resulted. Just before the accident occurred an excursion train, bearing 900 excursionists, who had visited Bath for the Exhibition, arrived from Weymouth. Had the precaution been taken to make provision for obtaining toll at the railway end of the bridge, the accident would never have happened. But the people crowded thick and fast upon the bridge in their anxiety to get to the Show, and it is stated by witnesses that it was thickly occupied from end to end. Some of the local residents were remarking upon the danger dof such a number upon so light as tructure, when the bridge began to shake, and, suddenly starting from its sockets on either side, fell into the river below, being smashed, in the centre by the fall. The structure was the property of a small company, numbering about ten shareholders. It was built fifteen years ago, from a design by Messrs. Hicks and Isaacs, and has always yielded a remarkably high dividend. It has lately undergone repairs. A scene of the greatest consternatiou followed. Scores of persons, of all ages and both sexes, were struggling in the river, which at this point is about 20 feet deep, and bounded on one side by a high bank, and on the other by a perpendicular wall 6 feet high ; others clung to the portions of the ruin which remained above water, and a few floated down the stream. A number fell on the tow-path (the river is here navigable), and were injured. The screams of the drowning and the great number of those who were injured, or whose lives were endangered, was harrowing, and for a moment the shock was so great that no assistance was lent. But speedily boats and barges and rafts were got. A great many were rescued from the most imminent peril and conveyed to the hospital, whilst the dead were taken to adjacent houses. Medical men were obtained as quickly as possible, and were successful in restoring several persons whose condition was critical. The work of clearing the river of the wreck and searching for the bodies was then proceeded with.