HEAD-ON SMASH

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4565, 5 November 1937, Page 5

HEAD-ON SMASH

TRAINS IN COLLISION. FORMER TE KUITI RESIDENT INJURED. PATIENTS PROGRESS WELL. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Auckland, this day. A former resident of Te Kuiti, Mr. Fred Ongley, was one of the two persons injured in the railway headon smash that occurred near the Parnell overbridge last night. The accident occurred when a goods train returning to Auckland from Newmarket became out of control and crashed into a mixed goods and passenger train outward bound for Henderson. The injured men were Mr. Ong-

ley, shunter, and Mr. Harold Macky,

also .a shunter. Both this morning were reported to be progressing satisfactorily in hosptial. Their injuries are not serious.

The fact emerged to-day that the

crew of the runaway shunting train realised it was out of control when it was passing through the Parnell tunnel. It was inward bound and from then on the crew kept the engine whistle sounding in a warning plea for a clear run. The circumstances were such, howevei*, that a collision was inevitable as the outward-bound train was approaching the funnel of the bridge. Herbert Reid, driver of the train

for Henderson, suffered slight facial wounds, -and Jack Muir, aged about 36 years, married, of Broadway, Newmarket, a fireman on the train from Newmarket, jumped clear just

before the crash and rolled down the embankment. A woman passenger .also was taken to the Auckland hospital suffering from shock, but after treatment was able to proceed to her home.

A few yards from the spot where the collision occurred a double line

commences, but the outward-bound

train had not reached this cross-over when a piercing and prolonged whistle was heard from the line ahead. The driver reduced speed, knowing that another tnain approaching at an increasing speed down a fairly steep gradient was experiencing brake trouble and was giving the acknowledged warning to other traffic.