TRAIN SKILFULLY HANDLED

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

TRAIN SKILFULLY HANDLED

PASSENGERS' EXEMPLARY BEHAVIOUR,

. (BY TELEGRAPH HIESS ASSOCIATION.} TE KUITI, Bth April. Immediately on receipt of news of the accident, a relief train was dispatched from Te Kuiti, and brought the passengers on to Te Kuiti at about 6 ,a m The journey«was continued from here at 9 a.m. by special train from Frankton. Though tired through want of sleep none of the passengers seemed very much the worse for their adventure 4 Wallace, the guard, stated that all the passengers behaved in a most exemplary manner. There was no excitement and the transfer to the relief .train was carried out without any trouble.' This opinion was endorsed by the driver A. Blackwell. <.' A passenger by the train said that the slip occurred round a bend in the line, and it would be impossible for the driver to see the obstruction until within a few, yards of it. The train was not going fast, and the driver had it well in control, as was proved by the wav in which Be handled the train after it struck the slip. The first indication the passengers had that something was wrong was a heavy shock, followed by a succession of bumps, caused by the engine running over the sleepers of the permanent way. The engine ran thus for about 75 yards when the driver broughjfthe train" to a'standstill. It was a magnificent piece of judgment on the part of the driver. If the brakes had been jammed on hard when the engine struck (he slip, the consequences would' have been very much more serious. The driver put on thebrakes steadily and brought the train to' a standstill with both ends in a cutting. The -engine left the line on the open or gully side of the track, and it seems marvellous that it kept to the permanent way. " Those in the front of the train felt the bumping of the engine along the sleepers, but those in the back carriages did not realise that anything unforeseen had occurred. The engine was got back on the line at 2 p.m., and it arrived with the carnages at 3 p.m. at Te Kuiti, and thence continued to Auckland. ■ ' AUCKLAND, Bth April. Passengers from Wellington arrived here by- special train at 2.15 p.m., 7 hours 37 minutes late. There was no shock with the derailment, and many" passengers slept through the happening. Only one of those interviewed here coufd get within 25 minutes of the moment of the accident. The southward-bound Main Trunk express left here as usual