OFF THE RAILS

Northern Advocate, 12 June 1926, Page 5

OFF THE RAILS

BRISBANE EXPRESS TRAGEDY DRAWBAR PULLED OUT. BIGGER CALAMITY AVERTED. (Received 9 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Early reports of tho railway accident were most contradictory. Tlie latest givV four killed. It is now stated that Mrs. Bennett was not killed, but only slightly injured. The following is the official list of those killed:— H. C. White, Canterbury, Slimon Mansour, Waterloo. Miss Barbara Dalzell, Rockhampton; and a man not yet identified. The number of those injured is authentically given as 33. The driver of tho leading engine, who had a miraculous escape from death, said that his engine would have fallen over, but the main engine pulled the drawfiar right out of his engine, and although the tender was lost the wheels of the pilot engine never loft the road.

He added that if the train had been composed of ordinary passenger ears there would have been hardly any survivors. As it was, the special steelframe ears did not buckle, thus saving many lives. The reason for the train leaving the rails is unknown.

Officials emphasise the fact that the accident was not caused through the viaduct collapsing. The train had passed a wooden viaduct ■which was about 400 feet from a steel bridge that spans the River Hunter, when it left the line and ploughed up the permanent wav. A single line runs across the viaduct and the bridge and .slopes down towards the river, but the grade is slight and the line is straight.

The Minister of Works and Railways states that apparently the derailment occurred before the viaduct was reached.

The question of the safety of wooden viaducts w r as raised in the Assembly in December last, when the Commissioners of Railways stated that they had adopted a bridge o,f standard design, composed ef brick masonry «r concrete, with a steel superstructure. These bridges were replacing wooden bridges, as the latter got out of repair.

A report of the disaster is being prepared for the Commissioners. —A. and N.Z.

ANOTHER DEATH REPORTED. ' SOME CRITICAL CASES. (Received noon.) SYDNEY, This Day. It is reported that a woman, so far unidentified, succumbed to injuries received in the train disaster. Morgan and Peter Hopkins are in a critical condition. Miss Marie Burke is also reported to be in a serious condition. —A. and N.Z,