RAILWAY HORROR

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 September 1926, Page 5

RAILWAY HORROR

STORIES OF N.S.W. SMASH.

WORST IN STATE’S RECORD.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (By Cable —Press Assn.—Copyright.)

SYDNEY, September 14. The Murrundi railway smash was the worst in the history of New South Wales. The darkness added to the horrors and difficulties of the situation. Huge fires from the debris of the carriages and from the bush timber- nearby soon lit up the scene in all its awfulness. The sound of the great crash awakened the residents in the surrounding districts, and the news spread rapidly. Motor cars and other vehicles poured in with helpers and other assistance, including doctors and nurses sent from Scone and Murrundi. The work of rescuing the wounded, who were pinned in tlje wreckage and who were threatened, till the burning wood was quenched, with a still worse death from fire, proceeded under the direction of four doctors, who were among the mail train passengers. The groans and cries of the wounded —many of whom were terribly mangled—were heartrending. As soon as the injured were rescued, they were dispatched to the hospitals.

When the runaway trucks struck the mail train, the leading locomotive stood on its end, and then the trucks rose up in the air, actually leaped over the locomotiVe and the front part of the train, and landed with a frightful smash upon the second carriage. In this the passengers were crushed where they lay. and were buried in the terrible coffin into which this carriage had been transformed.

By a miracle, the driver of the train escaped. He got free of the inferno of escaping steam and smouldering wreckage.

Until fires were lighted, the rescuers had to work by the glimmer of a few lanterns amidst an awful scene of carnage, hissing steam, and grinding wreckage, .mingled with the screams and groans of those who were injured. The rescuers hacked their way to where the victims lay pinned. As the wounded people were released, they were carried for half a mile to a squad of waiting cars, and were then hurried off to the hospitals. Only five were rescued alive from the second car without the use of axes. Among the dead and injured a tiny baby was found, whose mothei- lay dead beside it, and whose father was badly injured.

One of the rescuers states: “From one portion of the wreckage, we dragged eight dead and three badly injured. A doctor had to cut off the legs of one dead man in order to reach another passenger who was pinnetjl under the wreckage. One woman who was hemmed in a mass of wreckage held her two dead children in her arms.”

There were a number of school children aboard the train, several of whom were killed. Two unidentified wounded persons succumbed in the hospital.

SURVIVORS’ NARRATIVES.

SYDNEY, September 14.

Details •from the scene of the disaster continue to shock the city. In many cases the sights were so drestdful that the rescuers were compelled to relinquish their efforts, being overcome by horror. There were many instances of heroism on the part of the sufferers, who boro their pain unflinchingly on the way to Sydney in a special train. Most of the injured are too dazed to speak of their experiences. When the special reached Waratah, near Sydney, there was a frantic search by the relatives of the people on the train. The relatives rushed frotn window to window’ in quest of them. ' One survivor said that the blazing fire threw the whole scene into relief. Frost lay on the ground, while pyjama-clad figures watched the dead and the injured being recovered. It was too gruesome even to think of. Mothers were separated from their children and were calling for them while men, women and children were all sobbing. One small girl who was pinioned by both legs sobbed piteously while a man held her in his arms. In another compartment a man who was working at extricating the injured attempted to pull a schoolgirl from the wreckage, when he found that a splinter had entered j her brain. The screams of the injured people were so frightful that they were heard at a station two miles away. Another survivor describes the picture as one of bodies everywhere. Women with babies were jammed in carriages, and a whole sleeper ;was cut in two as though with a tin opener.

DEEDS OF HEROISM. SYDNEY, September 14. The siding from whicn tne trucks broke away is at an altitude of 700 feet on the warlancis Range. The trucks gained a tremendous pace before they met tiie mail train, winch was also travelling at a high speed in the opposite direction. Many of the passengers were asleep when the crash came, terrible as was the suffering of the injured, they escaped a worse fate only. by r the heroic efforts of the uninjured passengers and of other helpers in making a lire" break between the burning wood waggons and the wrecked carriages. in some compartments every passenger was killed, in others, the dead and wounded were jammed together amongst splintered wood and twisted iron.

The front of the mail train, which comprised two engines and two tenders, a first-class sleeping carriage and a second-class sleeper, was smashed, and a second-class sleeper was crushed to pulp. It was in this secondclass carriage that all were killed. It was found that the bogey under this carriage was forced through the next sleeper, causing injuries to many passengers. Both of the engines and tenders became a mass of buckled iron work. LONG WAIT FOR HELP.

SYDNEY, September 14. A number of the injured arrived at Sydney by a- special train this afternoon, "and were greeted by an immense crowd. Hundreds of people were surging around the entrance to the platform, which was guarded by a strong force of police. There were wildly hysterical scenes as anxious relatives waited oii the platform, and when the train drew in the police had the utmost difficulty in restraining the crowd, as people rushed from group to group of survivors, scanning their faces in quest for relatives. . The nassengers related vivid tales of the disaster. “ It was said by one that in some cases, uninjured people were pinned with the corpses beneath wreckage for three-quarters of an hour before the breakdown gang arrived. little girls who were returning to

school behaved splendidly. They were lying with broken arms and collarbones in the debris, but not a word of complaint came from them. ; Another survivor states that very little help 4 came for nearly an hour, and not much could be done until axes arrived from Scone. When the wool bales burst, burning coal from the engine got among them causing a fire.

DRIVER’S LUCKY ESCAPE

SYDNEY, September 15.

Travellers by the wrecked train, who reached Sydney gave graphic accounts of disaster and subsequent scenes while extricating dead and wounded. The driver of the train had a miraculous escape. He says that coming round the bend, he was horrified to see the runaway trucks bearing driWtl upon him. He jammed the brakes dowfi hard, but was unable to pull up the train. A moment later he heard the fireman shout “For God’s sake jump.” His foot caught in the strap. He heard a rending crash and he remembered no more. When he regained consciousness he found himself lying in the tender, partly buried under coal, but only slightly injured. Other travellers describe the scene as one of unforgettable gruesomeness, heads, arms and legs being jumbled up in all directions, the bodies being piled up in heaps. The work of extricating them was very arduous owing to the darkness and closely wed&ed position of the victims, many of whonl could not be moved, after levering and hacking away the woodwork, without hurting other unfortunates pinned alongside. The suffering of many of those wedged amongst the wreckage was intense, and numbers succumbed in agony before the rescuers were able to relieve them.

THE DEATH ROLL.

SYDNEY, September 14.

The names of the dead so far identified are ;—John Dunbar, Mrs. Ackland (both of Scone) ; Howard Rich, of \Varatah ; S. Bush, of Moree ; Master Rich, Waratah; John Giles, and Mrs. Giles, of Evenleigh ; Sydney Mallet, Quirindi; A. C. Brush, Moree ; L. A. Nailer, Parramatta ; Arthur Jurd, Moree ; J. D. Kennedy, Moree ; Nancy Secombe, of Wee Waa ; Miss Janet Doyle, of Quirindi ; Peter Vigineas, of Gunnedah ; F. McKeown, of Tamworth ; B. Sampson, of Gunnedah; Mrs. A. McDonald, of Werris Creek; A. Jefferson and W. T. McMillan, addresses unstated.

LATER,

An additional list of killed is as follows : —Sampson, school girl; a middle aged woman, believed to be A. Anderson. The other dead, including two who died in the hospital, bring the total fatalities to 26. Some are still unidentified.

NEW ZEALANDER KILLED

SYDNEY, Sept. 15

Latest reports of the railway accident state that thirty-eight were injured.

The additional names of the dead are Owen McGrath (address unknown), Mr. Wilson and Mrs. Wilson of Pilligi, John Enol Walker of Tarnbar Springs. Ada. Methven Fripp of Rowena, A. E. Adams of Sydney, and a man believed tp be J. R. Mockbridge of Dunedin, New Zealand. Two women are at present unidentified.

Although various lists published in the newspapers give the total killed in the railway accident as 26, there is a great disparity in the names of the victims. Many bodies were so badly mangled that identification is most difficult.

It would now appear that the girl Seccoinbe, the man S. Brush, and one of the two Sampsons mentioned, are not among the victims. Some lists include Wilson and his wife, and Master Rich, but others do not. Until the revised lists are compiled, it is impossible to clear up the dis-

DUNEDIN, Sept. 15.

Advice received by the police through the New South Wales Railway Superintendent, states that a man believed tp be the husband of Mona Mockridge, Dunedin, was killed in the big railway disaster. The description and the initials on his ring seem to identify him as John Reuben Mockridge, 29, last heard of in Sydney. He was once employed at an insurance office here. He played half-back for the Pirates in the senior fifteen. VICTORIAN PRECAUTIONS. MELBOURNE, Sept. 14. • The Railway Commissioners are affixing automatic safety coupling devices to all new trucks, obviating the possibility of the vehicles breaking away, and ensuring safer working for the enflployees ■