MAIN TRUNK DISASTER

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 5, 6 July 1923, Page 6

MAIN TRUNK DISASTER

The railway disaster which occurred on the Main Trunk line this morning is, for the number qi casualties involved, of unusual magnitude for this country. Such accidents strike with tragic suddenness the hearts of relatives and friends ; and to them will go out the deepest sympathy. Details of the accident are scanty at the time of writing, but it seems that the train ran at high speed into a fall of earth near Ongarue, which is about fourteen miles north of Taumarunui. The engine was derailed; some pi the cars were telescoped, and the consequences to the passengers in the heavily-loaded train were inevitably serious. The Main Trunk railway traverses considerable areas of treacherous country which, in cuttings and steep faces, is always liable to break away after soaking rains. The rainfall has'been"'so heavy of late that there has been almost an epidemic of slips and other interruptions. At another point a little south of Taumarunui a mixed train was damaged by a slip which actually struck it. Accj. dents of this kind recall the impressive fact that the driver of a night express has a singularly short future—at times assessable only in seconds—within his view; and with that limited outlook is bound up the safety of his passengers.- Whether any practical way can be found to minimise the risks imposed on railway traffic by Nature's accidents is a question that has so far not found an answer.