SHOCKING RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11826, 2 December 1901, Page 5

SHOCKING RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

— TWO LITTLE BOYS KILLED. A shocking railway accident (says the Sydney Morning: Herald of -November 25), which resulted in the death of two little boys, occurred shortly before six o'clock Inst evening on the line near the Ilurstville station. One of the children, John Henry Sparkes, aged five, was killed instantly, and the other, Michael .Tames Fahey, aged lour, received such injuries that he lived but a few minutes. The l>oy Fahey resided with his father, Mr. Thomas Fahey, on the Bellevne Estate, Hy-der-sfreet, Hurstville, and little Sparkes lived in the same neighbourhood. It seems that the children had been playing together during the afternoon, and at about a, quarter to six they were observed near a railway crossing in Woid'3 Avenue. Nothing more was seen of them until just before the accident. It is believed that the little boys reached the crossing as a train proceeding from Sydney towards Hurstville was passing. The train by which they were killed was then Hearing the spot from the opposite direction, and it is thought that they waited till the np-train had passed, and that they then attempted to cross the line. They were seen by persons from the down-train a moment before the engine struck them. As soon as possible after the accident the engine, which was driven by Bernard Dwyer, with Robert Lamont as fireman, was brought to a standstill. The whole train had passed over both children. The guard (Thomas Field) and several passengers proceeded to where they were lying. Little Fahey wa3 then alive, and though unconscious, he bore no visible marks of injury. His companion, however, was dead, the body having been terribly mutilated and both arms severed. The living child and the body of little Sparkes were placed on the train, which then continued its run to Sydney. At the Arneliffe station a doctor was in attendance, and after examining the child Fahey lie pronounced life to be extinct, death probably resulting from a broken neck.