TRAIN AND BUS COLLIDE

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 January 1944, Page 6

TRAIN AND BUS COLLIDE

HEAVY CASUALTIES

SYDNEY. January 20. Fourteen persons were killed, one died in hospital and five were critically injured when an express train bound from Sydney to Kempsey crashed into a bus at a level crossing near the Hawkesbury River station, this morning. ’The accident was the worst of its kind in New South Wales for 20 years. The bus was cut in halves and smashed to matchwood. One section with several bodies was carried along several hundred yards by the locomotive, the tender of which was derailed by the wreckage. The dead and wounded were strewn along the track. Those killed included the driver of the bus, several children and two nuns. A mother and her two daughters were killed outright and her husband and grandson taken to hospital. The bus carrying 19 passengers was bound from Kangaroo Point to the Hawkesbury River station. As the train bore down on the bus the driver and fireman saw horror on the faces of women and children passengers. The driver jammed on the brakes but realised that there was no chance of stopping. The engine struck the bus with an impact that was heard half a mile away. Local residents hurried to the scene with first aid equipment, and doctors and military personnel arrived soon afterwards. Fifteen ambulances were sent from city and suburban stations.

The relieving gate-keeper at the level crossing said he heard the train coming and called out to the bus which was passing through the gates, but apparently the driver failed to hear.

The State Commissioner of Railways, Air. Hartigan, announced that a searching departmental inquiry would be held into the cause of the accident.