TERRIBLE RAILWAY ACCIDENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9152, 6 September 1888, Page 6

TERRIBLE RAIL WAY ACCIDENT

i A TERRIBLE accident occurred between 1- ! (midnight of Saturday. July 21) and on.? j o'clock on Sunday morning on the Man j chester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railwav, by which four women lost their lives, and many other passengers were more or j less injured. The train to which the accii dent occurred consisted of an engine, six or | seven carriages, and two brake vans, and it left the London Road Station, Manchester, for Glossop and other stations, via Guide Bridge. It was an ordinary passenger train, ! and was well filled with people who had been visiting Manchester from the out -districts on I business and for pleasure The complement I of passengers was increased at Guide Bridge ! and Hyde, where, however, some of those from ; Manchester left the train. When the train i arrived near to the engine, works of Messrs. i D. Adam son and Co., and at a point near j Hyde, where there is a junction of the j lines, a goods train struck one of the cari riages and smashed it to atoms, literally ! strewing the line with splinters and other j material. The immediate cause of the ac- | cident was not far to seek. A quarter of a j mile before the collision the carriage oscdI lated so fearfully that the passengers tried I to attract the attention of the guard, but | without success ; and it was manifest the ! carriage had left the metals. The right ! side of it was struck with terrific force by j the engine of the goods train, which was ' running in an opposite direction, and the i passengers in the rear of the carriage were I partly buried in the debris and shockingly J mutilated. Those in the other carriages ! were shaken, and some of them received | rather serious injuries. The uninjured pasI sengers at once set about relieving their I less fortunate travellers, whose shrieks ' and cries for aid rent the air. Fires were lighted on the embankment with the debris 1 of the wrecked carriages, and passengers and officials from neighbouring stations I were soon removing the wounded to the • station near to Hyde-junction, where the • waiting-room was utilised as a temporary ! hospital. Four persons, whose bodies were i shockingly disfigured, were found to have lost their lives. These also were taken to i the station, and subsequently to an improj vised mortuary They were all females*. ! Other passengers, men and women, . were attended to on the spot after ) short intervals by medical men from the ■ neighbouring towns, who had been summined as the serious nature of the ac- ; cident became known. Several of those j who were injured were able to resume their : journey after being attended to by the i doctors, and others were sent on to the I Manchester Infirmary. The bodies re- | covered were identified during the day a* i those of Miss Janet Middleton, aged five ; '. Mrs. Hannah Beard, 6"2. and Miss Wilson, j of Glossop. and Mrs. Basrien. of Had field. ] The list of injured numbered 14, according j to the official account, and included James ]W. worth, Glossop; Frank Callen, ; painter, Glossop : James Goddard, landlord of the Victoria Hotel, Glossop, who were at i the Manchester Infirmary ; Mrs. Cullen, : wife of Frank Callen ; John Bennett, of i Dinting Vale, and his daughter, a young ' girl, who was somewhat severely shaken. | The most serious case was, however, that of • Culien, who receive.! a severe shock and in- | juries to the head.