RAILWAY HORRORS

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 October 1928, Page 2

RAILWAY HORRORS

COLLISIONS IN HOMELAND COACHES ON FIRE (Australian Press Association.) <By Cable—Press Assn. —Copyright;) LONDON, October 13. A mail train and a. London Midland freighter $ collided at Charfield, in Gloucestershire. The mail train caught fire. It is believed that seven were killed, while many were lnjUred - . LATER.

The disaster occurred at five o’clock in a dense fog. An empty freight train was backing into a siding, and the express mail train struck it head on. Three of the latter’s coaches telescoped, instantly caught fire, and became an inferno. Nine bodies have been recovered, while - there are twenty-six victims in hospital. The express driver jumped clear, whereas the fireman is still imprisoned in the wreckage, and likewise the freight train’s engineman.

TALES OF HORROR.

BROTHER’S TERRIBLE STRUGGLE

(Recd. October 15, 11 a.m.) LONDON, October 13

The Charficld smash occurred under a bridge carrying the road over the railway, close to the station. The mail train caught the freighter with a crash which awakened the sleepers two miles around, then overturned On the oposite line, on which a second freighter was passing. Fire broke out immediately among the piled up wreckage. The screams of women and children mingled with the roaring steam from engines. One of the frighters had a petrol wagon, which was smashed and sent up a blaze. ’The bridge was so burnt that it has been declared unsafe for vehicles. The debris was smouldering and occasionally bursting into flames twelve hours after the crash. A hundred villagers rushed from their beds, but experienced the awful position of having to stand idly by, listening to the cries unable to approach until the firemey had found water. “It was like a great bonfire,” declared a spectator. ,“Wfr did not know where to start. The carriages were like ovens. A little girl, with both legs broken, was the bravest I saw. A man dashed from the blazing coach, and then cried: ‘I have lost my luggage,’ and dashed back. He was not seen again.”

A post office sorter, who was a war time victim of shellshock, lost his reason, and had to be forcibly carried from the scene. A terrible story is told by Louis Huntly, who was still last night roaming among the ruins vainly seeeking his sister. “I smashed a window and lowered my wife safely. I then found my sister was pinned down, and unmoveable from the waist downwards. While I was working, fire broke out in the next compartment. I threw the full weight of my body, against the woodwork, but could not free her. The flames crept nearer inch by inch, until the partition of the compartment was ablaze. My sister was calling out: ‘Save me! Get me out!’ I went mad. Ten men could not have freed her. I fought on until I smashed my shoulder blade, rendering my left arm useless. My sister cried: ‘Save yourself, Louis.’ Then the flames swept over and I fell. I was taken to Bristol with my wife, then they brought me back here to identify a Woman, but she was not my sister.”

It is since established that Huntly’s sister, Mrs Johnston, is among those dead ,

FATAL HONEYMOON.

CRASH IN GLASGOW TUNNEL.

LONDON, October 13.

One man was killed and fifty persons were injured, including many women, by a railway collision in a tunnel outside Queen Street Station, Glasgow, involving a London-bound train. The dead man was proceeding on his honeymoon. His bride is among those injured and is in.a hospital. The horrors of the collision were acccntuateed by the darkness of the tunnel at which it occurred. The doctors, railwaymen and volunteers were soon unrecognisable with soot and grime. The rear of the train was smashed to matchwood, and wreckage was piled up against the roof of the tunnel. It is remarkable how the passengers except one escaped with their lives. It is feared that many will lose limbs. In one case a bridegroom was terribly mutilated, and he still had a white carnation in his buttonhole from the wedding. Nineteen out of the fifty injured were seriously hurt. The dead man is Donalson Gray, who was married only three hours previously. His wife’s leg was amputated in the hospital, as well as the front of her other leg.

Another couple, Mr and Mrs Ross, were also on their honeymoon, and they are lying injured in separate hospitals. LATEST DEATH ROLL. (Recd. October 15, 11 a.m.) LONDON, October 14. More bodies, mostly unrecognisable, have been recovered, and at least forty injured from the Charfield district. A second death occurred in connection with the Glasgow smash. Newspapers draw attention to the record number of accidents this year, twenty-six resulting in sixty-three deaths.

FOURTEEN DEAD

LONDON, October 14

After five hours’ examination of the remains, many of which are almost charred to ashes, the doctors are satisfied that there are fourteen dead.

HAWKE'S BAY MISHAP.

(Per Press Association.)

DANNEVIRKE, October 15.

An express train from Wellington to Napier on Saturday afternoon, ran into cows at Maharahara crossing, belonging to J. G. Doyle, farmer, in the vicinity, eleven being killed. An eye witness remarked that it was a miracle some of the front carriages were not derailed. The locomotive was very little damaged, but the rails were slightly twisted. The cows got out of a paddock through a gap in the fence caused by heavy wind. About twenty-live out of

fifty had crossed the line just as the train came round the bend about 400 yards away. The engine driver blew the whistle twice, which apparently frightened the animals, which were over the crossing and cowlike they immediately stampeded back. A jamb occurred and although the train diiyei applied the emergency brakes, the engine dashed into the mob with the above mentioned results. Doyle estimates his loss at between £2OO and £3OO.