TRAIN WRECK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 12 June 1926, Page 7

TRAIN WRECK

CAUSE AT PRESENT UNKNOWN (ISy Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Auutr ilia-i & NCable Association.) SYDNEY, June 11. The official list of the dead in the railway disaster is: 11. C. White, Canterbury; Alison Mansour, Waterloo; Miss Barbara Dalzell, Itoehanipton; ami a man not yet identified. Thirtythree were injured. The driver of the. leading engine, who had a miraculous escape from death, said his engine would have fallen over but the main engine pulled the drawbar right out of his engine, and although it lost the tender wheels Cite pilot engine never loft the road. lie added that if the train had been composed of ordinary passenger cars there would have been hardly any survivors. As it was special steel frame cars did not buckle, thus saving many lives. The reason for the train’s leaving the rails is unknown. Officials emphasised the fact that the accident was not caused through the viaduct collapsing. The train had passed the wooden viaduct when it left, the line and ploughed up the permanent way, seriously damaging the viaduct. A single line runs across the viaduct and the bridge and slopes down towards the river .Hunter, but the grade is slight and the line straight. The Minister of Works and Railways states that apparently the derailment occurred before the viaduct was reached. The question of the safely of wooden viaducts was raised in the Assembly in December last when the Commissioners of Railways stated they had adopted a bridge of a standard design composed of brick, masonry, or concrete with a steel superstructure, which were replacing the wooden bridges as the latter got out of repair. A report of the disaster is being prepared for the Commissioners. SYDNEY, This Dav. It is reported that a woman, •o far unidentified, succumbed to, Flie injuries received in the train disaster. Ward, Morgan, and Peter -Hopkins are in a critical condition. Miss Marie Burke is also reported to be seriously injured.