MUCH PRAISE

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 11 June 1925, Page 5

MUCH PRAISE

FOR WORK OF RESCUERS. AT RAILWAY DISASTER. HEROISM OF INJURED. BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT Received June 11, 10.40 a.m. BRISBANE. June 11. Advices received from Gympie state that all the injured in the train smash spent a comfortable night. Survivors of "the di.s«vster toll of the heroism of the injured «uid Mso the br si very cf rescuers. Dr. ‘Stopford (Home Secretary), who was a passenger to Brisbane on the Rockhamtpon mail, which was waiting i\ few miles along the lino for the illfated train to pass, expressed the opinion that no praise for the work of the rescuers could he too great. Doctors, railway officials, ambulance men, nurses*, hospital authorities and volunteers both men and women, discarded every consideration but that of caring for the injured. Dr. Stopford also states that the general behaviour of .the injmed "was magnificent, the fortitude of some of them being amazing. LUGGAGE VAN DERAILED. DRAGGED ONE AND A HALF MILES. EXPERIENCES OF PASSENGERS. BRISBANE, June 10. The latest information regarding the railway disaster near Rockhampton, made available as the result of an examination of the permanent way, discloses that the luggage waggon was derailed a mile and a half from the scene of the disaster, and humped over three bridges while off the rails before finally falling over the Traveston bridge, but the guard dicl not notice anything wrong. . . . , The two remaining victims of tne disaster have now been identified as Mr Shad well, of Boonah, Queensland, and Benjamin Hill, of Brisbane. John Dean, husband of Saddle Dean, who was killed, said they were married last January. They came from Gunnedah to Queensland to search for work. His wife had just stepped into the lavatory when the smash occurred. He managed, after the first shock, to open the door, and heard his wife moan his name. He tried to move her, hut she was pinned in the wreckage, which had to be cut away. Prior to the accident an unusual knocking noise was heard behind their carriage, but no one investigated. . . Jack Stephens, one of the injured, said he was in the second to last section of th© carriage which fell over the bridge. The train was going fairly fast, and shortly before the smash _he thought he "felt the carriage humping badly. He looked out of the window, and‘his friend. Philip Reid, who was killed, also looked. They noticed the van behind projecting very much outside the line of carriages, and sparks were flying from the wheels. Stephens went and pulled the communication cord. As he did so the carriage gave a violent lurch, and topnled over the side of the bridge. He was stunned, and when he recovered be found himself lying on his face in the dirt by the side of the creek. People were crying and moaning all around him. He struggled out of the debris, and was attended bv ambulance men.