All Blacks In Train Accident, All Safe

Northern Advocate, 2 August 1949, Page 4

All Blacks In Train Accident, All Safe

(From Claude King)

GWELO, Mon.—the All Blacks had a narrow escape in the early hours of this morning when a train in which they were travelling from Rhodesia to Pretoria collided with a mail train travelling in the opposite direction midway between Salisbury and Bulawayo at 2.10. A native coal trimmer in the Salisbury engine was fatally injured and four other natives were taken to the near-by town of Que Que for medical attention.

The driver of the Salisbury train was also slightly injured

There is a single track between Salisbury and Bulawayo. The Salisbury train appeared to have ,over-run a small siding where the trains were due to cross.

He was found to be dead

An heroic attempt was made to release him by a railwayman immediately after the collision when steam was still hissing violently out of the engine, but he was so tightly wedged in by twisted steelwork that this effort proved unavailing. JAMMED ON BRAKES The driver of this engine was soon extricated and taken to Que Que for attention to minor injuries. The driver and fireman of the other engine, Messrs H. F. McKenzie and D. Jackson, were able to jump clear. Mr McKenzie said later: “I first saw the headlights of the other train a few hundred yards away and immediately jammed on my emergency brakes, but it was impossible to avoid a collision.” Soon fires were set going, around which natives on the train gathered to keep warm.

The emergency brakes were applied when the engines were only a few hundred yards apart and the night air was rent by the screeching noise of brakes and by emergency whistles. Fortunately the speed of both trains was thus considerably reduced, but the impact caused one carriage to be partly telescoped and another to be hurled on to an embankment. ENGINES INTERLOCKED

The engines became interlocked and one was partly derailed. The fender of the Salisbury train, on which the All Blacks were travelling, telescoped into the adjoining carriage and some passengers in this carriage who had just boarded the train at Que Que were caught under wrecked coachwork, but they emerged with only minor injuries.

The European passengers, after giving what help they could and ascertaining that nothing more could be done, returned to their bunks. Four hours after the collision relief engines arrived and the passengers later proceeded on their journey.

The carriage behind the Bulawayo engine, carrying natives, turned on its side, but, apart from the four natives already mentioned, there were no serious injuries, and these people scrambled to safety.

The relaying of the news to New Zealand was a difficult matter owing to the isolated country in which the accident occurred. The railway authorities were approached to facilitate an urgent flash message announcing that the All Blacks were in the train crash but were uninjured. Later a more detailed message was prepared, but could not be lodged until the train arrived at the small town of Gwelo, about 100 miles from Bulawayo, about eight hours after thecrash occurred. TANGLED WRECKAGE

When daylight broke, a survey of the scene revealed that the partlytelescoped carriage immediately behind the engine of the Salisbury train was tangled wreckage. How any persons escaped mystified observers.

The glass windows were shattered in several carriages. The All Blacks were in three coaches at the back of the train. The force of the collision threw several of the team from their bunks. Several were slightly bruised by falling luggage, but otherwise they escaped unscathed. The manager (Mr J. H. Parker), after quickly ascertaining that his team were all safe and well, offered the services of the team, but this was not found necessary. However. Ronald Elvidge. the Otago doctor member of the side, assisted two other doctors in giving medical attention to those slightly injured. A native in the engine was trapped in the cabin and an acetylene burner had to be used to extricate him,