EXPRESS WRECKED

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 May 1914, Page 5

EXPRESS WRECKED

TELEGRAMS.

DUSTER ON MAIN TRUNK TWO KILLED, MANY INJURED. FOUR CARRIAGES TELESCOPED. 02 TELBC3A2H —y EK pfiEgg ABfcOCTATiON WELLINGTON, This Day. The Secretary of the -General Post. Office has received information that a collision occurred at Whangamarino between the north-bound express train, which left here at mid-day yesterday and a goods train. The collision occurred at 5 o'clock this morning. It is reported that two passengers were killed and several injured. AUCKLAND, This Day. - A railway disaster happened to the main trunk express at Whangamarino, near Mercer, this morning. . Several passengers were injured, some seriously. So far as can be gathered the express was running at full speed and crashed into a good train which Bit Auckland at midnight. , ; Several carriages telescoped and the line is blocked for traffic.

One of the passengers killed was Or. ton Stevens, general manager for the New Zealand National Mutual Life Assurance.

The second passenger killed was Peterson, of J. i\ MacKenzie and Co. Those seriously injured are Grimshaw, of Wellington, and Spinson, of Wellington. Both were taken to the Hamilton Hospital. The others injured are Goldingham (Palmerston North), H. A. Fox, McKay and Howard, all of Wellington. Peter Donaldson, railway porter at Whangamarino station, has his arm broken.

G. N. Grimshaw is registrar of the Tokerau Maori Land Board, and was formerly private secretary to Judge Palmer* He recently 'eft for Welling-, ton, intending to return with his wife and family. C. Petersen belongs to Melbourne. He carried introductions to a commercial firm in Auckland. ; *

H. G. McKay, of Melbourne, inspector of the Commercial Bank,. has been stationed in Wellington for the past six weeks. He was one of those less seriously injured. _ Orton Stevens, who was "killed, was one of Wellington's best, known citizens. "He had been in the service of the National Mutual Life Association for a great many years. He came from Australia about 12 years ago to assume the position of general mana ger for New* Zealand. He was formerly Mayor of Lower Hutt, Chair man' of the Hutt River Board, President of the Hutt Bowling Club, and it is understood was to Reform candidate for Hutt. He was mar ried, a native of Australia, and about 50 years of age. He leaves a wife and daughter and a son. The latter has a property near the North Island Main Trunk line. . Whangamarino is 50 miles south of. Auckland.

MIRACULOUS ESCAPES

SLEEPERS' CAR CRUSHED TO MATCHWOOD.

"EVERYTHING SO SUDDEN-'

ACCOUNTS BY EYE-WITNESSES.

AUCKLAND, This Day

An eye-witness stated that he was asleep in his berth and was awakened by hearing the collision. "I sat up in my berth," he said, "am* a moment later was thrown to the ground. The car seemed to tip up, and threw ro» several feet away. The side of the car was entirely smashed, and several men were lying on the floor struggling under a mass of wreckage. Apparently the sleeping berths had tumbled down, "The car was so strewn witn wreckage that it was almost impossible to tell what happened. . 1 1 saw Petersen lying on the ground in great - oain. Somebody came along and tried to restore him. He seemed to re vjve for a few moments and then became unconscious. I don't know whether he was dead then. "Exactly how the accident happened. it is impossible to say. Most of us were asleep. It came so suddenly." Another occupant of a sleeper, named George Pace, said: "Our car was smashed completely in two, and the sides of the train a? well as the sleeping berths were all jumbled no. We were all thrown from one side "of the car to the other. Some of those asleep in berths were knock, ed to the ground and pinned under the wood."

A SAD SPECTACLE

EXTRICATING THE. DEAD AND INJURED THE RESCUE OPERATIONS. ' AUCKLAND, This Day. Mr. W. Hill was the first passenger to emerge from the wreck, kicking his way through a window. Rescue work was hampered by darkness and the fact that there was only one axe. but everyone lent willing handsStevens had a splinter .through his brain, and death must have been instantaneous. Peterson, who was the last to be extricated was wonderfully cheerful although 'pinned by the upper part of his body. He was alive when got out about three-quarters of an hour after the smash, but suddenly expired. Several other passengers were (severely injured. There was some comment made at the scene upon the fact that it was threehours before help came from Mercer, seven miles away. All passengers came on to Auckland by a special train which arrived at the platform shorlv after half-past eleven . Most meagre news had drifted through to the city, and there was a large crowd of people expecting people by the tram. "A SHOCKING SJGt-ST." DISASTER CAME WITHOUT WARNING. GOODS TRAIN-OVERTAKEN. THE SLEEPING CAR WRECKED. AUCKLAND, This Day. The passengers arrived at _ 11-30 p.m They state that the collision occurred without, any warning. The goods train was getting off the Rjain line at a siding and the porter was at the points. It was almost clem when the express ran into it, the engine of (he goods train striking the express diagonally about the middle. Two cattle trucks in the goods train were knocked off the lines and a sheep truck was smashed to matchwood. The engine of the express was knocked over sideways and badly smashed in front. It fell over the hank almost in!-:> a swanm. The rear of the postal car immediately behind the engine apparently rose -'ml ran right over the sleeper-ear be~ I hind it penetrating to within about a vard of the back door of the sleeper. I The roof of the sleeper and floor of