TERRIBLE TRAIN WRECK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22332, 1 February 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

TERRIBLE TRAIN WRECK

" 33 KILLED: 80 INJURED j COLLISION ON RIVER BRIDGE HOLIDAY TRAGEDY IN GERMANY In a Christmas/Eve head-on railway crash on a river bridge in central Germany, 33 persons were killed and about 80 injured. The scene of the disaster was just outside the station at Gross Hcringen, between Naumburg and Erfurt, Thuringja. The trains concerned were the Berlin express to Frankfort and Basle, drawn by two engines and running at 60 miles an hour, and a slow local train from Erfurt to Leipzig. To allow the slow train, which was nearly half an hour late, to continue on its way, the signals had been set against the express, whose track the local train had to cross. The driver of the first engine of the express stated that, trying to make up a delay of 20 minutes, lie overran the signals. As a result, the two trains, approaching each other, met on the same track on the bridge over the River Saale; It was nearly seven o'clock in the evening, and the darkness added to the horror and confusion. So tremendous was the impact that most of the coaches of the slow train, in which all the deaths and all the serious casualties occurred, were overturned or smashed to pieces. One of them hung suspended on the railings of the bridge. Quantities of wreckage were thrown into the river, giving rise to a rumour, since, officially denied, that one of the coaches was actually flung into the water. The express train, saved, apparently, by its own weight and speed, kept the rails and escaped practically undamaged. Though many of its passengers were thrown violently from their seats and

some complained of shock and minor injury, none was seriously hurt. Many of them sprang out and attempted to % give help at the mass of wreckage, from which came terrible cries of terror and agony. There were heartrending scenes immediately after the crash, as the local train was filled with family parties returning from last-minute shopping, and the track was filled with parent? seeking their children and crying children seeking their parents. Some families were wiped out; many children are left without father or mother Toys Strew the Line The track was strewn with parcels, some of them broken or torn open, revealing dolls and other toys that were being taken home, or delicacies for the traditional German family meal late on Christmas Eve. One man, flung through the roof of a carriage, fell on to the ironwork of the bridge. He clung there for 20 minutes. Then, unable to hang on longer owing to the intense cold, he dropped into the river, but was able to swim to the bank. As soon as he recovered he insisted on searching for his wife. After an hour he found her —dead. All the neighbouring villages sent their ambulances and fire brigades to the spot, and as soon as messages got through troops, labour service men and relief trains arrived from Erfurt, Jena and Weissenfels. Sis women and a six-year-old girl were among the dead, all of whom were Germans. The victims, most of them peasants, were covered by friends with pine branches, the German symbol of Christmas. Herr Hitler sent a telegram to the local Nazi chief asking him to convey his deep sympathy to the relatives of the dead and his best wishes to _the injured for their recovery.