TRAIN WRECK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22767, 29 June 1937, Page 9

TRAIN WRECK

TRAGEDY IN KENT

DEAD END STRUCK TERRIFIC IMPACT FOl'R PEOPLE KILLED 12 OTHERS INJURED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received June 2S, 5.. i p.m.) LONDON. June '_>S A train from Ashford, Kent, was proceeding to London at 11.30 o'clock last night when it crashed into a dead-end in a siding at Swanley, eight and a-half miles from Gravesend. '

It is reported that four people were killed and 12 injured. The terrific noise of the impact was accompanied by a blinding electric flash caused by the engine striking a 32,000-volt transformer. Everyone in the neighbourhood was awakened. Ambulances and doctors were rushed to Swanley, where it was found that the engine was embedded in a high bank. The two leading carriages were wrecked, and screaming victims were trapped 111 the debris.

Rescuers worked with torches extricating the dead and injured. The train carried about 400 people who had been, to the seaside on Sunday. The dead included three women who were travelling in the first compartment. A child who also was travelling in the first compartment had a miraculous escape. It was sleeping when the train crashed and was catapulted across the compartment into the lap of a woman who was found dead. The fireman escaped with minor injuries.