THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN VICTORIA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume 5, Issue 765, 4 April 1884, Page 2

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN VICTORIA.

FURTHER PARTICULARS. MELBOURNE, April 3. The latest telegrams from Little River give the following list of the injured :—: — Miss Adams, of Sandhurst, received a severe shock, and internal injuries. Dawes, injuries to head, and is now in a comatose state; Miss Dawson was badly shaken; Mrs. Phoebe a severe shock; Walker, the fireman, of the cattle train, internal injuries and ribs fractured ; Mclntyre, guard, of passengers' traiu, shoulder dislocated, and wound on temple ; lady (name unknown), nose fractured, and severely shaken; another )a.dy, leg broken. Hie cabtle train which came into collision with the passenger train consisLed only of empty trucks. The collision took place at a curve, and the drivers were thus prevented from seeing their trains appvoaching one another until too late to prevent the catastrophe. MELBOURNE, April 4, 9.55 a.m. Details are now to hand regarding the railway accident at Little River. The trains met with a terrific crash, and the engines became locked, with their ironwork flattened and funnels touching. The tender of the cattle train was thrown off the line. The first truck was completely demolished, and the second turned with wheels uppermost. The roof of the third was battered, and the fourth broken into fragments. The fifth and sixth trucks were thrown off the line, with ironwork contorted. The train consisted of 35 trucks. The tender of the passenger train was thrown off the line, and the wheels buried up to the axles, the tender itself being almost destroyed. The second class carriage following was demolished, aud the roof of the next first class broken into matchwood. Debris was scattered in all directions. Kitchen, the driver of the cattle train, who was driver in the Haw- \ thorne accident, was jammed between the engine and tender, anil died shortly after. ! A woman (name unknown) in a second class carriage was injured internally, and died. Crack, the driver of the passenger train, was jammed by falling coal, and had his thigh fractured. Six others are seriously injured, and several slightly. Mr. W. Collard Smith, formerly Minister of Education, is slightly injured in the arm. The Hon. Thomas Cummiugs, who was a passenger, was uninjured. The accident is accounted for by the fact that Biddie, the master at Werribee, left his daughter and the pointer in cbsuge oi the station. She gave the staff to Kitchen, driver of the cattle train, and telegraphed that the line was clear. Doctors arrived on tfie scene about 1 a.m.; when the injured were attended to and sent on here. It was raining at the time of the accident, and bonfires were lighted to keep the wounded dry. Later. R. Biddie, the stationmaster at Werrible, who left bis daughter in charge of the station, and is thus alleged to have caused this disastrous railway accident near Little River station has been suspended. The Government has decided to institute an enquiry into the circumstances under whiGh the accident occurred outside the departmental investigation.