A DREADFUL RAILWAY SMASH

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 49

A DREADFUL RAILWAY SMASH

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, July 28. The collision on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's electric railway on Thursday evening Avas a terrible trophe. An express train from Liverpool crashed into another train at Hall road, about ten miles from Southport, and telescoped under the shock of the terrific impact. Twenty passengers Avere killed, or burned to death, and the rest had a wonderful escape from a like fate. Th© under portion of the train which the express had dashed into Airas cleaved through in an upAvard direction by the front portion of the express. The first two coaches of the latter were completely telescoped. These Avere third-class compartments, in Avhich the bulk of the passengers, as. well as the driver, were evidently instantly killed. Most of the passengers in these tAvo compartments were fairly wedged underneath the smashed Avood-work. In the work of ex-

trication it AA r as found that only three or four of the Avhole twenty-five passengers recovered, shmved any signs of life. The train kept the line, so that those in the reax* coaches suffered little more than a severe shock. '

Eye witnesses describe th© scene at Hall road as heart-rendering. The effect of the- impact of the two trains was that the first coach of the standing train was shot into the air and descended upon the motor and thii*d-class coach Avhich formed the front portion of the express. The ii'on frame under the carriage of the express Avas) driven under the standing train. Thus it Avill be readily understood lioav terribly injured and jammed were most of the passengers in the front coach of the express. While several, doubtless, were instantly killed by the concussion, the others almost Avithout exception Avere so awfully mangled that their sufferings must have been in a . f cav minutes mercifully terminated by death. In nearly every case the heads of the victims AA r ere crushed or otherwise hurt to an extent sufficient, if there had been no fui'ther injury, to have accounted for death; but, in addition, many received such other* .injuries to their bodies as to have precluded recovery even if the head had escaped. To get at the bodies the rescue party had to tear dOAvn the side of the carriage. There Avere thirteen corpses inside, tangled up in the frame-Avork at the bottom of the carriage. One young man, aaLo Avas still alive, had got his legs locked round the iron part of the seat, and it was a quarter of an hour before the rescuers could extricate him. In the end a crane had to be brought to lift the timber.and iron from the bodies. The Avliole scene Avas indescribably poignant. FolloAving the accident an added horror Avas the firing of the Avreckage by the electric current with which the ‘‘five” rail wse charged. An alarm was promptly sent to various fire stations, and the chemical engine from Liverpool came out, but the fire Avas extinguished befoi*© their arrival by means' of extincteurs, and there is reason to hope that little additional suffering through burns Avas caused to the injured. The current was quickly cut off. The remaining three coaches escaped either serious concussion or damage, several of the passengers therein Avent so far as to state that the impact Avhich they experienced Avas but slight. Almost Avithout exception the uninjured, as there Avas but a trifling alarm from fusing, a\ t ere quickly out on the line, and anxious to do all in their poAver to mitigate the sufferings of the surviving injured and to render any assistance in their power. The task of extricating the injured AA*as a heart-ren-dering one. Mingled with the subdued groaning of strong men Avas the pitiful shrieking of women and children, Avhose cries quite unnerved many of the medical practitioners who had volunteered their services'. The bodies of some of those who lost their lives were quite black, as if struck by ligktnjng, and more or less charred. The accident Avas caused by the express train passing from its oavii line on to the line on which the other train Avas standing; but hoAv the mistake at the points arose has yet to be explained.