SERIOUS SMASH

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 122, 26 May 1930, Page 10

SERIOUS SMASH

TEN MEN INJURED

A PUBLIC WORKS GANG

ON SOUTH ISLAND TEUNK

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

BLENHEIM, 25 th May. Tho advantage of the aeroplane in case of an emergency was illustrated on Saturday afternoon, when ten men were injured on the South Island Mttin Trunk railway works at Tirohanga, 45 miles from Blenheim, by a railway truck in which they were riding leaving the rails and crashing from a bridge. 0:- the receipt of a summons by telephone, Dr. J. F. Bennett arranged for the services of one of the Marlborough Aero Club's Moths, and by this means was at the scene of the accident and attending to the injured within an hour of the occurrence, and in less tlian half an hour after leaving Blenheim. The injured men are: — | Robert J. Wallace, aged about 45, married, with four or five children; crushed chest and fractured skull; condition reported grave. Wallace was employed on Murray's Woodside station until about two months ago, when he secured work with the Public Works Department. Thomas King, aged about 65, believed to be single with relatives in Shannon, lacerated back and strain; condition serious. J. Mills, married, no children, torn sinews of left leg and other injuries.. !—. Mason, single, ruptured muscles of back, lacerated wound in left hand. Eoy Gifford, married, broken jaw and nose and other lesser injuries. A. Duncan, severe crushing of loft foot. A. Petersen, broken nose, wound in head. R. Neilson, scalp wound, strained back. C. Ross, minor injuries. Maurice Hickey, injured faue. PLATE-LAYING GANG. ; The ten men were part of a gang which had been engaged in plate-laying between Tirohauga and Tainui. When the knock-off whistle blew at mid-day on Saturday, they entered a railway truck on which a hut had been erected, and which was always used for conveying the men from their camps to their work. A small engine was hitched on,and set off in the direction of Wharanui, where the men's camps were situated. All went well until Tirohanga was reached, but here the truck hut left the rails just as a bridge was reached. It turned completely upside down, and with the ten men trapped inside it, crashed into a creek bed about fourteen feet below. The hut, which was flimsily built of corrugated iron, collapsed when it struck the ground, and the horrified engine-driver and fireman, who pulled, up when the truck parted company with the engine, hurried back. They thought all were dead, «as there was no sound from the wreckage, and it seemed impossible that anyone could live under the weight of the inverted truck. Loud moans and cries were soon heard, and with the assistance of another gang, which was returning to Wharanui by road, the victims were extricated from the wreckage with considerable difficulty. TWO HELPFUL WOMEN. In the meantime a messenger was sent to Tirohanga homestead, which was close handy, and Mrs. A. Rittson Thomas, after telephoning to Blenheim for- a -doctor, went with Miss Aldworth, of Wellington, to the place'where the accident had occurred and rendered yeoman service tending the injured. They earned the admiration of all the men.

The least injured were dispatched to Wharanui by motor-lorry, and the others remained until the arrival of Dr. Bennett.

Captain Chandler, who' flew the aeroplane, landed on an excellent ground at Tirohanga, which has recently been adopted as one of the aero club's stations for short cross-country flights. Here a car was waiting to convey the doctor to the scene of the accident, about a mile distant. .

Wallace and King were conveyed to Marlborough Hospital in an ambulance, and their condition was reported as satisfactory late this afternoon. The others are still at Wharanui, but will probably be sent to Blenheim on Monday.

The accident did not occur on the Government railway line open for traflic, but on tho temporary line laid down by the Public Works Department to-facilitate the'transport of material and ballast, explains tho Railway Publicity Department. The South "island Main Trunk line running southward from Picton and Blenheim now terminates at AVharenui, and the accident to the Public Works employees occurred at a point some miles south of that terminal. In the- ordinary course of events, any railway line constructed by the Public Works Department has to be thoroughly inspected and tested before the line is handed over to tho Kailway Department to be used for public travel.