SCENES OF HORROR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 15 September 1926, Page 5

SCENES OF HORROR

BLANFORD DISASTER.

DIFFICULT RESCUE WORK

SURVIVORS’ VIVID STORIES

DEATH ROLL NOW 26

BY GABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—GOP YRIu til SYDNEY, Sept. 14. When the runaway trucks struck the mail train near Blau lord, the leading locomotive stood on end and the trucks rose in the .air and leaped over it. The front .part of the train landed with a frightful smash. In the second carriage the passengers were crushed where they lay and were held in lai terrible coffin into which the carriage had been transformed. By a miracle the driver of the train escaped and got free of the inferno., of escaping steam and smouldering wreckage. Until lives were lighted, the rescuers, had to work by the glimmer of a, few lanterns. Amidst lawful scenes of carnage, hissing steam and grindingwreckage mingled with the screams and groans of the injured they hacked their way to where the victims lay pinned. As the wounded were released they were carried half a mile to a squad of waiting cars and hurried off to- hospitals. Only five were rescued from- the second car without the use of axes. Among the dead and injured a tiny haiby was found whose mother lay dead beside it. The father was badly injured. One of the, rescuers states: “From l one portion of the w,rpeka.be we dragged eight dead and three badly injured. A doctor had to cut off the legs of a dead man in order to reach anotherpassenger pinned under the wreckage. One woman hemmed in by .a. mass of wreckage held her two dead children in her arms.”

There were a- number of school childrenl aboard the train .several of whom were killed. Two of the unidentified wounded succumbed in hospital. An additional list- of dead includes: Nancy Sealcombe, of Wee Waa; Miss Janet Doyle, of Quiri.ndi ; P. Vigineas, of Gunnedali; T. McKeown, of Tamworth; B. Sampson, of Gunnedah; Mrs. A. McDonald, of Werris Creek; A. Jefferson ; and W. T. McMillan (addresses not stated). The siding from which the trucks broke away is at- an altitude of 1100 feet on the Warlands Range. They gained a, tremendous pace before they met the mail train, which was travelling at a high speed in' the opposite direction.

Many of the .passengers were asleep when the crash came. Terrible as was the suffering of the injured they escaped a worse fate only by the heroic efforts of the uninjured passengers and other helpers in making a fire break between the burning wool waggons and the wrecked carriages. CARRIAGES SPLINTERED.

In some compairtment every passenger was killed and in others dead and wounded were jammed together amongst the splintered wood and twisted iron. The front of the mail train, comprising two engines, two tenders, a first-class sleeping carriage and .a second-class, sleeper, was smashed and the second-class carriage crushed to pulp.. It- was in this iseoond-class carriage that all the killed were found. The bogey under this- carriage was forced through, the next sleeper, causing injuries to many passengers. Both engines and tenders became a mass of buckled ironwork.

Additional list, of the killed include Clarice Samp-son, ta school girl, and.a middle-aged woman who as believed to be A. A-nderston. Other dead, including two who died in hospital, bringing the total -fatalities to twenty-six,are still -unidentified. So far -the official listgives 50 injured. A number of the injured arrived in Sydney an ia! -special train this .afternoon and were greeted by an immense crowd, hundreds of people" surging around the entrance to the platform, which was guarded by a. strong force of police. There were wildly hysterical scenes ibis anxious relations waited on the platform, -and when the train drew in the police -bad the utmost difficulty in re.straining the crowd as the people rushed from group to group of isurvivons scanning their faces in the quest for their relatives.

Passengers related vividi tales of the disaster. It was said by one that in some- cases uninjured people were .pinned with corpses beneath the wreckage for three-quarters' of an hour before the breakdown gang arrived. Little girls returning from .school behaved splendidly. They were lying with broken arms and collarbones in the debris, but not- a word of complaint came from them.

Another survivor says very .little help came for nearly an hour, and not much could be done until axes arrived from Scone. When the wool bales burst burning coal, from- the engine got among them, causing a fire.

HEROIC SUFFERERS

GRUESOME SPECTACLES

WORST SMASH IN HISTORY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

SYDNEY, -Sept. 14, Details from the seen© of the disaster contimiio l to shock the city. In many eases the sights were so dreadful that the rescuers were compelled to- relinquish their efforts, being overcome by honor. There were many instances of heroism on the part of tlie sufferers, who bore- pain unflinchingly on the way to Sydney in a special train. Most of the injured were too dazed to -s-peak oif their experiences. When the train reached Waratah there was a frantic search by relatives, the people rushing from window to window in their quest. One survivor said a. blazing fire threw the whole scene into relief. Frost lay on the ground while the pyjama-dad figures! watched the dead amid injured being recovered. It was toly gruesome even to think of. Mothers were separated from their children and were callinp- for them, while- the men, women and children were all sobbing. One small girl, pinioned by both legs, •sob!>ed piteously while a man held her in his arms. In -another cmn-pa-rtmtint-a- main .wank-in® at extricating the injured attempted to pul; 1 ! a- .school girl from the wreckage and- found a. splinter had entered her brain. The screams of the injured were so frightful that they were heard at -a station two miles away. Another surv.ivV)r describes the picaure as one of “bodies everywhere.” Women with babies were jammed* in the carriages -and a .whole sleeper was cut in. two as though with -a tin-opener. The smash wa-s the worst in the history of New South Wales. Darkness added to the horrors and difficulties of the situation. Huge fires from the debris of the carriage,® find* bush tim*

ber soon lit up the seen e in all its aiwlfulness. The sound of the crash awakened residents in the surrounding districts, and the news spread rapidly. Motorcars and other vehicles poured; in helpers and other assistance, iilne,hiding doctors and nurses sent from iScone and Murrurundi. , The work of rescuinig the wouinded pinned in- tlie wreckage and threatened, till the burning wool was quenched* with a still worse death from fire, proceeded l under the direction. of four doctors. The groans and cries (of the wounded, in any of whom were terribly mangled, were heartrending. As soon as the injured were rescued they were despatched to hospitals. The latest, reports state that 25 are dead.

All northern railway traffic is; badly delayed as the result of the accident.

INJURED NUMBER 38.

Received 10.20 a.m. to-day. SYDNEY, Sept, 15. The latest reip'orts of the railway accident state that 38 were injured. Additional names of the dead! are: Owen McGrath, address unknown; Mr Wilson and Mrs Wilson, of Pilligi; John Errol Walker, of Tambar Springs; Ada Meth/ven, Fripp, of Rowena,; A. E. Adams, of Sydney; and a man believed to be J. R. Mockbridge, of Dunedin, New Zealand. Two women are at present unidentified.