DISASTER IN COLLIERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18641, 23 February 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

DISASTER IN COLLIERY.

, WRECK OF A PIT TRAIN. ' ' 11 ' •' . -}'\ ' ' ' - • 'V ''** ' *' vt " SEVEN MINERS KILLED. V v/- rV- f ■ I':*r. f j. ■' MANY OTHERS INJURED. • Deep down under the heart of Sheffield j a shocking tragedy occurred, which added more, names to the long list of victims of this year's pit disasters. As ■a train of tubsknown as the " " Paddy Mail"— was conveying 'about 150 miners to their working * place at ■ the coal face <in the, | Nunnery Colliery a steel hawser suddenly snapped. * , • •' 1 1 • 1'• ••• - < With gathering speed, the tubs rattled down 'tho incline, ' and •; when travelling at' over a mile a minute one i of ~ them jumped the rails. There was. a sickening crash as half the string of vehicles with its human freight was piled "up in a great splintered heap. Out of the tangled mass of debriS the careful hands of .rescuers drew forth the dead'bodies of seven miners and rescued many who were injured.

It was just? as the men forming the afternoon shift were going on duty that the accident happened. The miners clambered into the "Paddy Mail,"' consisting of 30 or 40 four-wheeled tubs' linked together, each carrying three or four men. The train descended the long slope to the working and two-thirds ci the way down stopped to pick up a collier Who had been injured on the earlier shift. The restart was signalled, and there came a? sudden jerk and an ominous crack. '^ Down Hill at Appalling Speed. „> , The steel haulage rope, an inch and a half in diameter, had parted, and the frayed ends whirled into the air like gigantic lariats. Before anyone realised the situation- the crowded train began to run sharply down the. slope.. The pit bottom lay a thousand yards or so below. Gathering speed every second, the "mail" clattered along at an appalling velocity. Men stood up in the tubs, ready to jump, but it was too late tor many to escape. The train had already attained the speed of the fastest express, and rocking as from the effect of an earthquake, plunged swiftly into the depths of the mine. Several passengers, however, took the risk and sprang out. the impetus of the train shooting them like ninepins for yards along the track. One man crashes and lay inert by the side of the line. He had broken his neck and was killed instantly. Half a mile from the pit bottom there were the points of a crossing and a bend in the track. The miners, paralysed by , the suddenness of the disaster and utterly helpless, awaited the crash. Soma of the 1 leading trucks took the corner and points safely, and, reaching a level stretch, were pulled up. A tub about the middle of the train, however, leaped the rails, and was thrown over. The others crashed into it, telescoped, stood on end, and finally piled up into a pyramid of -wreckage and mangled men. Timber was splintered like matchwood, and flying wheels and ironwork made. death-dealing projectiles. Men were hurled 20 yards along the track. Others,' crushed* and torn almost beyond recognition, were buried in the mountain of wreckage. . ' '•Ci.i.T11'..,:

Rescuers Bush to the Scene. -' Swiftly, intimation of the disaster was despatched to the pit-head, and a rescue party was oollected and rushed to the scene. Telephones summoned ambulances and doctors from all • parts of Sheffield. The spot where the smash occurred was in complete darkness, and rescuers, carrying safety , lamps, heard the cries of the injured minutes before they reached the spot. The rights revealed a dreadful scene. The rescue work went ahead rapidly as the first party was' quickly augmented from the pithead. In many places, the workers had to get underneath the wreckage, crawling on their stomachs so as to reach the men beneath. •• The injured were taken to the pithead as last as they were released, and removed by ambulance to hospital. .At one time there were between a dozen and 20 ambulances in attendance. The casualty room at the Royal Hospital resembled a field-dressing station. Men lay about on stretchers and sitting on chairs, waiting to be attended -o, groaning with pain. In the meantime a crowd of people, including many frantic relatives, gathered at the pit-head, appealing for news.. Many women left their household tasks and rushed to the pit-head in their aprons, some carrying babies, others with children clinging to their arms. For a long time it was impossible to supply any information as to what had happened, or as to who was involved, and panic-stricken mothers and wives rushed about, making frenzied inquiries from people in . the vicinity. The police, under Superintendent Hughes, kept order and acted as comforters to the best of their ability. Dying Man's Cheery Courage. One of the most tragic bereavements was that of Mrs. Turner, who iost both her husband and her son in the, accident. Another member of the . family was rescued, and a fourth, who - .should have gone down with the ill-fated shift, had fortunately : stayed away. The elder Turner was in a tub which was so badly smashed that pieces had to be sawn out in order that he might be liberated. A man who was on the spot at the same time declared that the screams arid groans were terrible to hear, but Turner grinned cheerily, while the cutting away was being done. He had an idea that one of his legs, which had been amputated by the smash, could be replaced. As soon as he was placed on the stretcher he died. Some of the survivors owed their escape from death to the advice of old hands to "lie flat on the tubs." Mr. W. Hallam, one of the , rescue party,, describing the scene in the workings, stated that the men buried under the debris were only extricated .. with great difficulty. Two were suspended by their legs, their bodies being wedged between the train and the i - oof. He spoke in warm terms of the pluck of the injured. Some walked, he remarked, who ought to have been carried, and they did this in order that attention might be giver to more seriously injured men. On the day after the disaster it was discovered* that many men who were on the "Paddy Mail'' when it was wrecked suffered injuries which ought •to have been attended to without delay. With the self-control characteristic of Yorkshiremen, however, they made light, of their wounds'. One man went to work with several ribs broken.