SAD PICNIC TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19320, 6 May 1926, Page 11

SAD PICNIC TRAGEDY.

RAILWAY CROSSING SMASH. •-I•: ■ ■ . ' DISASTER NEAR MELBOURNE. HOW FATE PLAYED A HAND. FAMF Y DISPUTE AND SEQUEL. [from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY. April 30. Little did a Melbourne picnic party v hich set out last Monday morning—Melbourne's eight-hours day—realise that at dusk nearly halt their number would be dead, and nearly all (lie remainder injured, most of tliem seriously. Yet this was their tragic fate. Samuel Taut; a .I'itzrov fruiterer, decided (o spend the day in the open, and gathered 23 of his neighbours, including children, to form a picnic party. 1 hey spent an enjoyable day in one of Melbourne's playground districts, Ferntree Gully. Just as dark ■was falling; they were proceeding along the Ferntree Gully ftoad. near Boronia. The accident was appalling in its suddenness. The truck, containing 24 people, was rolling merrily along the road in the duslji. Suddenly, according to the injured, there was a loud and shrill thistle peculiar to Melbourne electric trains, and then an immediate crash. The train from Ferntree Gully on its way tn Boronia had caught the motor-truck on

a level crossing. Some of the victims' bodies were burled 50yds. Others were caught in the •wheels of the train and mangled almost beyond recognition. Others were found crushed and bleeding in the long grass by the line. The driver of the train collapsed almost as soon as the train was palled up. The dead included two middleged women, two single women, two young men, a youth, a 16-year-old girl, and a boy aged five.

'lbe ages of llio injured ranged - from a boy of five to a man of 60, two girls-and a boy among them being children of one of the dead -women. One of the most, astounding features of the accident was that three litfle children seated on the floor of the truck, -which -was covered, were uninjured. They were a boy aged two years, his eight-months-old sister, and their cousin, aged 11 years. When the train crashed into the rear of the truck the mother of the infant -was feeding it. She was severely injured. "I diti not see the Train." Samuel Tant, the driver of the truck, is 47 years of age. He has made a speciality of these picnics, and his truck has crossed the,'line, at this spot every Sunday for two months. His version of the accident was: "I did not see the train coming. The were quiet, and there was no light on the inside of the -truck. The headlights were burning. Suddenly there was an awful crash. The truck went right over, and I was hurled across a fence. I struck the rails of the fence,- and that must have knocked me unconscious.' That is all I know." » The story of the man who was sitting alongside the driver indicated that it was a miracle that anyone in the truck reaped death. "We were six feet away from the crossing," he said, "when a whistle sounded. It was so near that itseemed to be in my ears. Then came a crash and X lost consciousness. When I came to, children's toys were lying around me, and their owners, a few seconds before &o happy and smiling, were now lying torn or dead." A Dangerous Crossing. • Opinion seems to be fairly general that the crossing is very dangerous. The line and the road converge to a point covered by scrub, and it is almost impossible to see any train approaching. The trees, too, prevent the sound of the electric train-whistles being heard: The whistles make a penetrating sound, but they lack the volume of the whistles on the steam trains. Unstinted praise was showered on a party of 30 Boy Scouts, who rendered first* aid at the crossing. They were returning from an outing by the train which crashed into the truck, and as soon as the train drew to a standstill, the guard -walked along and appealed to the people to keep their seals. An offer of assistance from the scouts was gladly accepted. Although without material, they improvised splints from the splintered woodwork of the motor-truck. They constructed, stretchers, carried the injured to nearby houses, and placed the dead bodies in the train, in which they were brought to Melbourne. Story/ of Family Argument. Fate played a.hand in the accident, for Tant bad a heated argument with his son on Sunckv over the use of the truck on the following day. The son wanted to borrow it, and the father wanted to earn monev with it by taking out the ill-fated picnic party. ! On Monday morning the argument was continued, and the result was (hat the son refused to drive the vehicle at all, and Mrs. Tant stayed at home instead of. accompanying the party. T?ntly the truck broke down on one of the picnic trips to Fern tree Gully, and Tant had declared that he would not take on any more picnic parties. Monday's was to have been his last, trip. Since the advent of heavy motor traffic the railway level crossing danger has been j accentuated,' especially in Melbourne and Adelaide,- where the crossings are more) numerous than iu Sydney. On the same day, iri Adelaide, a train ran down a { motor-car. two of the occupants of which were killed, and three others were, seriouslv injured. It is little more than a rear that eight persons were killed in a 'crossing accident at Highett. near Melbourne and barely a month passes without ] j ts toll of fatalities from crossing acta-j <l<-nts. (