UNDERGROUND COLLISION

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 May 1938, Page 7

UNDERGROUND COLLISION

LONDON’S WORST DISASTER MANY KILLED AND INJURED [BY CABLE—-PBESB ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] (Recd. May 18, 8 a.m.). LONDON, May 17. Seven were killed and 50 seriously injured l in London’s worst underground. smash, when two ..crowded trains collided between Charing Cross and Temple stations. The tunnel was plunged in darkness after the crash. The passengers were thrown in heaps. They realised the seriousness of the smash on .hearing the groans and cries of the injured. The passengers were afraid to move for fear of those under the wreckage. There was a blinding flash, accompanied by an explosion, under a carriage half an hour later. Many thought the train was on fire. They desperately smashed the windows 1 and scrambled out. The track was covered with blood. They staggered to Charing Cross platform, through the black tunnel. Guards attempted to prevent the exodus until the order to move, an hour after , the crash, when the first rescuers carrying torches arrived:' fiffie melancholy procession continued for 150 minutes, after which the last four of those who were trapped, were extricated, as the result of the superhuman efforts of rescuers, who stripped to the waist .were forced to jack up the carriage. Almost the entire resources of the Charing Cross hospital, were placed at. the disposal of the rescuers. Many patients were removed from their beds to accommodate those who were injured including the guard of the front train, who suffered a broken leg.. The other train’s driver was not injured. Most of the victims were occupants of the front carriages of the oncoming train.

A member of the railway staff, who was among the first rescuers, said a. short circuit after the crash caused the fire, which was put out by carriage extinguishers. The current was then cut off.

Dr. Burgin (Minister of Transport) and Lord Ashfield, chairman of the Transport Board, visited the wreck. The underground system has a remarkable safety record. The chances of collision as the result of a technical fault are estimated at. a million to one.

DIFFICULT RESCUE WORK. (Received May 18, 11 a.m.) LONDON, May 17. Charing Cross was converted into a vast casualty clearing station. Dozens of doctors, students, arid nurses rushed from the Westminster and Charing Cross Hospitals. They worked feverishly, by light flares and torches, to extricate tho injured and to ease the suffering of those seriously injured. Many passengers under the debris, and others lying on the track, were given injections of morphia. Cylinders of oxygen were carried into the tunnel, to revive the worst cases. In ■he foul atmosphere, 40 firemen and railways workers assisted in the extrication of the injured./amid the deafening noise of drills used to cut a v. a? through the wreckage. The police faced an enormous task, in the controlling of thousands of people in the vicinity of Charing Cross station, where ambulances and file engines were four deep. The greatest, difficulty was experienced in removing patients, because of the crowds.