SENSATIONAL TRAIN COLLISION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9503, 28 May 1913, Page 5

SENSATIONAL TRAIN COLLISION.

V ; .• VjiTr" ■■ ON AUCKLAND-HELLENSVILLE LIRE/ ENGINES BADLY DAMAGED; CARRIAGES TELESCOPED. THREE PERSONS SERIOUSLY INJURED. TWENTY OTHERS RECEIVE MINQR HURTS. FOG OBSCURES SIGNALS; LINE GREASY WITH FROST. (Pib Pbiss Association.) mi AUCKLAND, May» 28, Ihe passenger train from Henderson and the train from Auckland collided on the railway bridge at New Lynn at 6.50 this mo ™ n £ Two carriages were telescoped, an « b°th engines badly damaged. Ihe facts, so far as can be ascertained, indicate that the signals were obscured bv a heavy fog, and were not visible until the Henderson tram was right upon them. Ihe driver of the train, on observing tho danger signal, promptly applied the brakes, with the result that the passengers were thrown out of their seats. The rails were very greasy on the steep grade, which was covered with frost The train consequently kept on at a good' speed until it crashed into the train from Auckland. The latter had gone up the line to side-track, and before it could return the collision occurred on the middle of New Lynn bridge. The engines collided head-on, and both were badly broken up. The first carriage of the Henderson train was not damaged, but the next two wore completely telescoped, and crumpled up like a concertina. Both carriages left the railway lines, and were hanging over the side of the bridge. The next two carriages had their windows broken, but the rearmost carriages escaped. On the other train, as showing the force of the impact, the buffers for almost tho whole length of the train were driven irto one another. There were nearly 100 passengers on the Henderson train, but only a few workmen on the other. A number of passengers sustained slight injuries, cuts and bruises, and several were badly hurt. Stone, a resident of Oratia, was very badly injured, and was conveyed to the hospital. A railway employee named Thomas and i fireman on one of the engines were also very badly hurt. LATER DETAILS. SCENE OF WILD EXCITEMENT. TRAINS MEET ON BRIDGE 50 FEET HIGH. A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE. AUCKLAND, May 28. There were only seventy passengers on the trains. Twenty in the first carriage of the Henderson train were, with one exception, severely cut and bruised. The second and third carriages, which were telescoped, had only two passengers. One named Stone was extricated from the wreckage of tho third carriago with difficulty. The second passenger, Farrell, had a ma'rvellous escape. The third carriage crumpled up into a space of four feet, and the side, bursting )ut, went over the side of tho bridge and fell into the water 50 feet below. Tho bridge on which the trains collided was 40 feet long. One train had been taking in water at New Lynn, and was backing on to tlTe side-track to let the other > passenger train) pass, when the latter appeared, coming down hill round a curve. Both engine-drivers jambed on the brakes, but it was impossible to avert a serious end-on collision.

The two 45-ton engines met with terrific impact, and every one of the eight cars in the passenger train bears evidence of the force of the collision.

Immediately there was a Bccno of wild excitement.

Half a dozen men and women were carried out unconscious. One doctor in the vicinity was promptly in attendance, and another was soon on the scene. As an indication of the force of the impact, it is stated that two sleepers on the bridge were cut through, and the railway lino badly dented.