MISHAP ON MAIN TRUNK

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 85, 9 April 1924, Page 5

MISHAP ON MAIN TRUNK

A PROVIDENTIAL HAPPENING

THE DRIVER'S STORY.

(BI TELEGRAPH,—SPECIAL TO Iffl! POST.) AUCKLAND, This Day. The driver (A. Blackwell) of the Main Trunk express which ran into a slip between Kopaki and Puketutu, fourteen miles south of Te Kuiti, yesterday morning, when interviewed at Frankton aftei\ the-arrival of the relief train, stated that' Lhe vibration caused by the approaching train was apparently the final straw to dislodge the mass of earth and rock on the bank, for lie felt the slip coming down. He immediately applied the brakes, but the heavy train, which comprised twelve vehicles, ran on for about a train's length through the slip, ploughing its way through mud and slush as it fell. When the train came to a standstill, the slip extended along it practically from end to end. The engine, which ia of the AB class usually run on this route, jumped the rails shortly after encountering the slip, and ran along the sleepers for about 70 yards on the bank side of the rails. This was providential. A further fortunate happening was that at the time of the accident the train was negotiating a curve with a ravine on the outside, otherwise the engine must have gone right over the bank and dropped into the bed of the Mokau Eiver. Had this occurred, the heavy engine would inevitably have dragged at least same of the following coaches with it. These clashing a hundred.feet down into the swollen river would have meant certain death to most, if not all, of the hapless passengers. ENGINE MOEE THAN HALF BURIED. When Driver Blackwell succeeded in bringing the train to a halt the sleeping cars, which were at the -rear of the line of vehicles, were out of sight round tho curve, and even these cars were plastered with mud to the height of the windows. The height of the slip round the embedded train may be gauged from the fact' that the mud and slush of it were level with the engine's headlights, the _ big engine being more than half buried in. debris., While the train was running through the slip, moreover, it partly crossed a filling ' between two banks, and when, it came to rest a section of it was standing on this filling with a big drop oh either side of the carriages. POSTAL OFFICIALS TOSSED' ABOUT. The officials in the postal van. Messrs Osborne, E. J. Sutherland, 'and H~ Bishop, were hard at work when the crash came. The van was situated immediately behind the tender, and therefore felt the shock heavily. They had almost completed their work whe-i the slip was encountered. The van rocked about like a boat, and the men were tossed forcibly into different parts of the van where they were strewn with etters which fell from the pigeon holes fortunately none of the men were phv«ically injured. " DISASTER NARROWLY AVERTED. "It was at daylight that we got the ■^1 Si lOC, k' !> SaW a kd >' P^eiiger In the darkness it had been impossible to see any distance away from the train tuie of the exact spot where the train was standing Morning lifted the veil and we found we were on the ed-e of a ravine which dropped almos, sheer down for feet to a raging rive" It did not require imagination to picture the disaster which had been so narrowly averted Had the engine gone to that side of the line instead of the other, we might easily have been hurlfo to pur death. The thought made one.