SERIOUS RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 123, 22 October 1874, Page 2

SERIOUS RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Last evening a very painful accident happened on the Southbridge line about a mile and a half on the Christchurch side of Lincoln, by which two men received very serious injuries. As an engine with eight empty trucks attached was coming down the line at a steady rate of speed, it, from some cause at present unexplained, ran off the line. The engine did not, however, leave the track at once, but for a distance of about twenty-four yards kept bumping from sleeper to sleeper, till one gave way, when it then turned over on its side, and lodged in the bank on the side of the line, the trucks at the same time running off in the opposite direction, and cutting through the railway fence, landed in Mr Wills’ paddock. Three men were on the engine at the time the accident happened, viz, Mr Townsend, the engineer, Mr Merrin, the stoker, and Mr Smith, the chief gauger on the line. Mr Merrin and Mr Smith fell under the fire box of the engine, and consequently received very severe injuries, Mr Smith having his thigh bone broken, while Mr Merrin had his collar bone fractured and his face dreadfully cut, and otherwise very seriously shaken. Mr Townsend fortunately escaped uninjured. Mr Townsend dragged the two sufferers from their painful position, and having let off steam, called for assistance, which speedily arrived, and traps having been procured they were brought on to the Christchurch Hospital. No cause is yet assigned for the accident, the line at the spot being nearly, if not altogether, straight; and as far as could be ascertained last night there was no mark of any obstruction having been placed upon the rails. It may be stated, however, that the track at the point where the accident occurred is not yet ballasted.