TRAINS COLLIDE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22319, 17 January 1936, Page 9

TRAINS COLLIDE

ACCIDENT IN ENGLAND TWO PEOPLE KILLED TWENTY-SEVEN INJURED By Telegraph—Pre?* Association—Copyright LONDON. Jan. 15 Twenty seven people were injured when the Penzance to London express crashed into part of a goods train near Swindon. It is believed that the rear portion of the goods train became detached from the front, thus blocking the way of the express, the engine of which capsized, the front coaches being wrecked. The driver of the express and a woman passenger were killed. The collision occurred in the darkness of a frosty early morning. Passengers were thrown from their beds in the sleeping coach and many were pinned beneath the wreckage. Bonfires were lit from the debris and rescue work was accelerated owing to the fact that some railway workers were travelling in the same train to Didcot. They immediately gave assistance to the injured. One railway worker was puzzled by a sound from the engine and found a budgerigar in the piston tube, fourteen of the birds were recovered. They had heeti in a box which had been burst in the crash. The fireman had a remarkable escape. Doctors and nurses were rushed from Swindon and attended the injured. Breakdown gangs have been at work alt day clearing the blocked section of the line, and meantime trains to and from South Wales and the west of England have been considerably delayed.