A SINGER IN THE SMASH

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 6, 7 July 1923, Page 8

A SINGER IN THE SMASH

Mr. Ernest Drake, the singer, -who took the tenor solos in the Berlioz ".Faust" performance in Wellington last Saturday night, was a passenger by the tram. He ;was dozing at the time of the accident., and was awakened by a crash and then a blinding flash liko lightning. The carriage in Which' Mr. Drake was travelling was very full.-"We did not feel more than a bump at the ;time," he said to a- "Post" reporter. "The ladies in the. carriage woro not over-ex-cited. .Everyone realised that something had happened to the train, but no one in the carriage thought the accident was so terrible as it turned out to be. , "Walking along the line when the train'had. come to a. standstill I saw sights that I hope I may never see again. I will not describe them.' The train was-travelling at what I thought a' steady pace, nothing unusually fast, but the impact must have been terrific' from tho way the engine was smashed up, the rails snapped and twisted, and the sleepers pounded into matchwood.

"Everybody helped in getting the ■wounded out of the wrecked carriages. It was not at the moment of the accident, but now, that tho horror of it all is so vivid.

"The.' journey down from Auckland has taken; over 30 hours. It has been an experience for those who

undertook it. Hours were spent in getting down from Taumarunui, and on our way thonce to Wellington we saw an engine lying overturned in the mud. There was mud everywhere, and the weather was bitterly cold, but thankfulness for escaping from so terrible experiences as, those in the wrecked carriages went through made all other discomforts of the journey southward from the accident seem light indeed." Mr. Drake goes to Dunediu to-night.