FRENCH TRAIN DISASTER

Evening Star, Issue 21632, 30 January 1934, Page 6

FRENCH TRAIN DISASTER

1 200 KILLED IH COLLISION

The following account of the great French train disaster, which appeared from its Paris correspondent in ‘ The Times ’ of Wednesday December 27, has been praised for it simplicity and other qualities, as “a piece of great journalism, worthy of the highest traditions of the past ”: — The worst disaster in the historv of the French railways occurred at i .50 p.m. on’ Saturday at Pomponne, near Lagny, fifteen miles from Pans, on the inain line of the Chemm de Fer de L’Est. An express train from Pans to Strasbourg, running at full speed m a fog, crashed into the rear of a slower train which had been checked in front of it. The guard’s van and the last four coaches of the slower train were completely destroyed. The exact number dead and injured is not yet finally established, but it is feared that not fewer than 200 people were killed and at least as many more injured, many of them very seriously. The latest official figures are 196 killed and at least 200 injured. . , , , The railway company issued the following official statement on Sunday “ The Compagnie de L’Est is sorry to announce that the number of victims in the accident at Pomponne is ranch larger than was thought at first. It seems certain to exceed 150. . “Train No. 25 bis., which left Paris at 7.31 p.m. yesterday, came into collision at a speed of sixty-five miles an hour with train No. 55, which was in front of it. The guard’s van and the last four coaches of this tram were demolished. The engine, the van, and the first two coaches of the express train were derailed, but not seriously damaged. The passengers in this tram were able to return to Paris m the coaches which were not derailed. DEADLY CONDITIONS.

The disaster occurred in the most deadly conditions, which accounts for the fearful loss of life. The express train was composed of heavy steel coaches, hauled by a ‘ Mountain class (4-8-2) locomotive of the latest type, which weighs about 150 tons. 'Altogether the weight of the express train was between 500 and 600 tons. The other train was. composed of old wooden coaches with thin_ metal panelling quite unable to withstand the shock of a collision. When the express train overtook it the slow tram was moving at about six miles an hour after a signal check. The great “Mountain ” locomotive' ploughed its way straight through the slow train for nearly all its length, not merely telescoping the wooden coaches, but reducing them literally to fragments, sweeping their fragile superstructure, with their human freight, before it like snow before a snow plough, hurling their flimsy roofs aloft and their parntions and panels to right and left, pending their metal chassis double, twisting them into corkscrew shapes, bursting them asunder and scattering their heavy wheels like cotton reels along the line. When at last it came to rest the express engine had completely destroyed four coaches crowded with people. The front of the express engine when the breakdown trains dragged the first wreckage away presented a strange appearance. Buffer beam, frame-plate, , smokebox door, and funnel were planed "and levelled into the likeness of a. gigantic ploughshare. The lofty boiler was plastered with debris, human and material. Long after the collision a child’s white beret still hung on the handrail, alongside the boiler. Ox tn© wrecked coaches only one chassis, entirely shorn of wheels and coach work and 'bent like a bow, was recognisable as a single unit. To be sure how many coaches there had been it was necessary to count the wheels and bogie frames among the wreckage. CROWDED TRAINS.

Both trains were crowded, \vith passengers, mostly 'holiday-makers, on their way home for Christmas. Ihe. demolished coaches of the slow tram must have contained about 300 people, including many children and soldiers and sailors on Christmas leave._ Or these - 300 none. escaped injury. Threequarters were killed. The steel express train, on the other hand, was hardly damaged, so little resistance had !the wooden train offered to its impact. Of the mail van next to the engine one window, was broken and the front panel was pierced in one corner. In the next coach two cases of mineral water left on the "end platform stood intact after the collision amid the indescribable wreckage of the ■ other train. Tn the express train; no one was 1 seriously injured, and bnlv a few passengers complained of shock and bruises. The driver and fireman escaped unhurt. _ Tn’e disaster occurred in a thick mist accompanied by a severe frost. These conditions impeded the work of rescue and added to the misery of the -injured. The first rescuers—firemen and villagers from Pompoime and the staff and uninjured passengers of the two trains groped among the wreckage by the light of a few lanterns unable to see more than a yard or so in front of them. in the swirling fog, guided only by 'the desperate cries.or people pinned in the wreck. With numbed hands and dazed minds the rescuers dragged out dead and injured as best they could and laid them in a field close to the line, on iron-hard ground, slippery with hoar frost. Clouds of steam from the express engine, blown back along the wreck by a bitter east'wind, condensed in sheets of ice on the wreckage, and, mingling with the fog, added to the blindness of the rescuers. , , After a time doctors and ambulances began to arrive from Meaux, Lagny, and Paris. Bonfires were lit on the permanent way—there was plenty or fuel at hand—and their flames threw fitful, light on a terrifying scene. For a distance of 70yds the track was torn up and the ground heaped and littered with twisted metal, splintered wood, bodies and parts of bodies, burst and scattered luggage, papers, Christmas provisions and torn clothing. _ The passengers and staff of a third tram (which was travelling on the up-line and narrowly missed running into the wreck) joined the earlier rescuers, and the Paris hospitals rushed ambulances and surgeons to the scene ; but fog and ice made road traffic as difficult, if not as hazardous, as moving by rail, lor many hours before help arrived terribly , injured people, trapped and half frozen in the wreckage, lay in helpless suffering. HERO OF THE DISASTER. The hero of the disaster at this stage was Maurice Ancel, a young, sailor belonging to the submarine flotilla at Cherbourg, who was travelling homo on leave. All through the night he worked devotedly to rescue the injured and to relieve the suffering of those who could not be extricated, crawling to them under tangled heaps of metal, feeling / his way in blood and darkness. At dawn ho collapsed and was taken to hospital. Many of the rescuers were by then worn out and hardly able tp speak cr mqye s

As soon as possible after the disaster the company sent a relief train to bring the injured back to Paris. The first survivors arrived at the Gare de L'Est in coaches detached from the express train. Some, however, were found to have died of their injuries; many were half-naked in the biting wind, their clothes having been torn off. in the collision. Among them were children who had lost their parents; a colonel of artillery had brought away a boy_ of five whom he took home with him. At the first news of the disaster the stationmaster at the terminus, fearing an unmanageable rush to the station, had issued a reasurring statement. When the real news became known the Gare de L’Est was besieged by a great crowd of people, some '.-’inouring for news of their friends ;T.kl relatives, others moved only by curiosity; but there had been time to organise police cordons and inquiry offices. It was many hours, however, before even approximate lists of the dead and injured became available. The company decided on Sunday to bring all the bodies to the Gare de L’Est, where they were placed in coffins and laid in an improvised mortuary. Over 150 coffins lay there last night, and some forty deaths were reported from hospitals in Paris, Meaux, and Lagny. All the bodies recovered from the wreck have now been identified, but it is feared that some will never be found. Among the dead arc M. Schleiter, the Mayor of Verdun, and M. Henri Rollin, the Mayor of SaintDizier, both of whom are Deputies; and M. Paul Morel, the Mayor of Vesoul, a Deputy and former Under-Secretary of State. M. Poittevin, a Deputy for the Marne Department, was badly injured. . . , The casualty lists issued so far contain only one British name, that of Miss Veronica Manning, with an address at Metz, who was injured. M. Lebrun, the President of the Republic, accompanied by Ministers and officials, visited the mortuary at the Gare de L’Est yesterday. M. Chautemps, the Prime Minister, and M. Paganon. the Minister of Public Works, hurried to the station when they heard of .the disaster and spent Saturday night there with the railway officials. Expressions of sympathy have been J-eceived from many countries. Lord Tyrrell, the British Ambassador, was among the first'on Sunday to offer the condolences of his Government. CAUSES OF COLLISION. The exact causes of the disaster are now the subject of an official inquiry. It is known that traffic on the Est system was disorganised by the fog on Saturday afternoon, and there were rumours that the signalling apparatus was not working properly owing to the frost. Both the trains had left the Gate de L’Est over an hour late. The Est Railway has a system ofautomatic block signals, electrically operated by the trains themselves, which set the signals at “danger as they pass them. It has been, suggested that ice on the contacts had affected the working of these signals. In addition to the visual signals, a_ mechanism, which is brought into service in foggy weather, automatically places a detonator on the rail when the signal is at “danger,” and this'detonator should warn the engine-driver that he is passing a signal. In this case the driver of the express train (who,_ with his fireman, is now in custody! insists that the last two signals behind the slow train were open when he passed them, and he says that he heard no fog signals. The fireman was on the fender, trimming his coal; he also says, he heard nothing, but he was not watching the signals.! , . ■ Two passengers in the last coach of the express train have stated that they heard a detonation under their carnage just before the accident, which suggests that the mechanism of the fog svstem. perhaps stiffened by the frost, worked late (possibly only when shaken by the passage of the train) and failed to warn the driver. On the other hand, a" e driver of the slow tram says that e signals were working normally when he passed them. The tell-tjyc on his engine showed that: hehad duly recorded the passage of each signal, while the “tell-tale” of the express engine is. alleged to have shown omissions. A ticket collector who was on the slow train has confirmed its driver s story, and other, railway servants are: alleged to have seen the signals; work-: ing properly! The- last signal-behind the slow train was itself demolished in; the wreck. Both the driver and the fireman of the 'express' train-,have excellent records, and neither has been involved in an, accident before.