RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN OTAGO.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 133, 3 November 1874, Page 3

RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN OTAGO.

The Daily Times of the 28th ult gives the following account of a railway accident on the Green Island line: A collision, which was fortunately unattended with any serious consequences, occurred on the Greeu Island line yesterday morning. The fact of the collision not causing a serious loss of life or limb is not to be attributed in the slightest to any precaution taken by the authorities, for a greater piece of carelessness on the part of some person or persons connected with the line it has never been our lot to chronicle. Our reporter, who was on the spot at the time the accident occurred, supplies the folfowing details, which we think will go far to prove what we have already stated —viz, that the most reckless negligence was shown. It appears that the usual 8.30 a.m. train left Green Island to time, the engine being in charge of William Thomas. The train was freighted with a fair number of passengers and some trucks of coal. All went well till the train approached the sharp curve and gradient near the new workshops, or as the public will probably know the locality better, near the new patent brick kiln. At this spot a stone crushing machine has been erected, and to facilitate carriage, a siding has also been constructed. At the time the passenger train was due at this place the luggage engine and trucks emerged from the siding, and were just fairly on the main Hue, going at a few miles an hour, when the passenger train came round the corner—fortunately somewhat slowly, owing to the decline and before it could be stopped, ran into the end trucks of the goods train. The shock to the passengers was considerable ; four of the trucks were thrown off the line, and the flattened state of the buffer of the engine conveyed a very good idea of the force of the concussion. The collision was not sufficiently strong to make the trucks pile, but a good many of the buffers telescoped considerably. Had the luggage train been stationary the effect of the collision would have been greatly augmented, with probable loss of life. Owing to the sharpness of the curve on this part of the line scarcely half-a-minute elapsed from the time Thomas first sighted the luggage train till the accident occured. Of course all brakes were down instantly, and everything done to ease the smash as far as possible, but under the circumstances a collision was inevitable. On making enquiries we found that most of the passengers had been greatly frightened, but not seriously hurt. A man named Charles Vickers received a bad shaking, and complained of excessive pain in his back and spine, and Mr Samson, of Green Island, also received a slight cut under the right eye. A gang of platelayers who were working near the siding were soon on the spot, and in the course of an hour succeeded in getting the four trucks on the metals again. The goods engine proceeded to town, and brought out Mr (Jonyers, the general manager, but by the time he arrived nearly all the work was done, and the permaneut way not being damaged, both trains ran slowly on to Duuodiu. The excitement at the railway station was considerable, till it was ascertained that nothing serious had occurred. Before closing this account we must express a hope that the most searching inquiry will be made into the cause of this accident, for it is quite evident that if the present light traffic on this line cannot be conducted with safety, the travelling public will have a very risky future before them when the running on the line increases.