A Train Wrecked.

Hastings Standard, Issue 451, 15 October 1897, Page 4

A Train Wrecked.

— DRIVER KILLED—3O PEOPLE INJURED. A serious railway accident happened on the London, Brighton, and South Coast railway last month, when a train was hurled over an embankment between Ileathfield and Mayfield. The driver, an Eastbourne man, named James M'Kinley, was killed, and several passengers seriously injured, whilst others had most miraculous escapes. The telegraph wires were broken by the wrecked train. It is said that the wires were the means of lessening the gravity of the disaster, the lines steadying the fall of the carriages down the embankment somewhatuntil the strain caused them to break. Five of the six carriages were thrown over the embankment some sixty feefc above the level of the meadowland. There is no indication of landslip, but for seventy yards or more the line has been torn up, the rails forced out of position, and the sleepers crushed. When the engine left the line it fell on its side, overhanging the embankment, with a third-class carriage above it. It was in jumping from this engine to the embankment that one of the five carriages which crashed down the embankment on the opposite side of the engine struck M'Kinley, causing fatal injuries. Dr Lamminman, of Tunbridge Wells, who was a passenger by the train, said that while he was reading he suddenly felt a curious sensation similar to that of a roughly used brake being applied. This sensation he had felt the day previous at the very same place. The extraordinary feeling continued, and subsequently he realised that they were off the line. He \fas in the act of falling on the floor of the carriage when he was thrown most violently over. It seemed as though the carriage gave a huge lurch, and it rolled over down the embankment. The carriage continued to revolve until it reached the bottom, where there was a great crash. His carriage had come in contact with others. The sensation was indescribable. In the descent he was dazed, and he must have lain in the wreckage for some time. Subsequently he was extricated by a railway official. He proceeded to dress the wounds of his more unfortunate companions as they were extricated from their perilous positions. Looking towards the top of the bank, he noticed that the engine lay on its side with its wheels in motion, and the steam blowing off with great vigor. Fearing that an explosion might result, the doctor directed the fireman, who had sustained rather severe injury, to draw the fire, and this was done. The driver was soon afterwards found among the wreckage of one of the carriages quite dead. It was perfectly marvellous to think that only one person was killed.