EXPRESSES COLLIDE

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 June 1935, Page 5

EXPRESSES COLLIDE

' .bi ■./—M—> ' ENGLISH RAILWAY DISASTER ■t; ' ' t , - -| ’ : MANY WOMEN KILLED • ■ "-y : ' (BY CABLX—-PBEBB ABBN.-—COPYBIGHT.] •’ ' 1 LONDON,, June 16. Urgent telephone messages were received at King’s Cross railway station just before midnight, which reported a serious train smash at the Welwyn Garden City station. An express train from King’s Cross, laden chiefly with Sunday newspapers, crashed into a duplicated portion of the Newcastle-bound express which was standing in the' Welwyn station. Fourteen were; killed, while there were between thirty and forty injured, many seriously. . .7 The parcels train telescoped the rear coaches of the express. The wreckage was piled across four main lines.

Local, people heard a noise like an explosion. They rushed to the scene in cars and on bicycles, and took up the work of extricating the passengers. There was the utmost difficulty in this. Some time elapsed before even a. feyv flares, were available. The cottag'e hospital, at' Welwyn, with only eight beds, was soon over- , flowing with the injured passengers. Others were taken to Hertford.

Under the flares of acetylene lamps the rescuers hacked and tugged at the debris, amidst which it seemed to be impossible that anyone could be alive. Yet a little girl , and men and women were extricated by a superhuman effort. Those passengers who were lucky to escape with bruises turned immediately to help the less fortunate. Nurses presented a strange spectacle in mud-bespattered uniforms, heavy rain having fallen.

SCREAMS IN THE DARKNESS. LONDON, June 16. The crash was the worst in the history of London and North-Eastern Railway.. The parcels express carried a few passengers and was travelling at seventy miles an hour at the time of the collision, while the Newcastle express was carrying two hundred excursionists, the majority of whom were women. . ' First arrivals saw a ghastly scene of eight overturned telescoped carriages, from which the moans and serpams of the victims arose in the darkness. • . ; -/ -■ Fifteen were killed, and forty irfjured. • NURSE’S HEROISM (Rec. June 17, 11 a.m.) LONDON, June 16. Toiling-through -•a”-heavy thunderstorm, a breakdown gang cleared the line .at; Welwyn at,;4".p.fn. Nurse Violet Miles,’ twenty-two, after an escape from death through leaving the compartment where neighbours wanted to sleep, worked throughout the night, tending the wounded; after 1 which she collapsed and was taken to a restaurant and revived. She is acclaimed as a heroine. She lost her money in the wreckage. A man, uninjured,- ; .b.ecame demented, when his wife and daughter dead. .

Many women, rushed from their homes to render aid, but fainted when, they saw the appalling scene. One woman injured, taken to hospital, cried, “Where’s my baby?” A nurse and policeman hurried to the wreckage and found the baby dead. The majority of the victims were women.

W. Powell, a Welsh International footballer, a passenger on the Newcastle express, despite an injury, worked for hours rescuing others.

Firemen, using blowlamps, extricated the last victim at 5 a.m. The driver of the parcels train said he was travelling fast when he saw the Newcastle train ahead. He jammed on the brakes and watched the crash coming, then jumped. The guard of the leading train was killed outright.