A Terrible Accident.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7357, 3 November 1898, Page 4

A Terrible Accident.

A dreadful accident took place early in September at W ellingborongh, abont 65 miles from London, on the Midland Company's line. The bare news of the affair, which reached us by cable, gave no indication of its nature. Some boys took to playing with a luggage trolly on the platform, and, by some piece of boyish folly, ran it so close to the edge that it toppled over on to the line. Just at that moment the night express from London to Manchester, which does not atop at'Wellingborough, was signalled, and, before the horrified spectators could do anything it rattled into the station at the rate of sixty or seventy miles an hour. With luck, the mere speed of the train might have saved, as has so often happened before, but though the truck was smashed to atoms, it is supposed that the wheels, or some other part of the ironwork, became entangled with the wheels of the locomotive, for after running the length of the platform, the engine left the rails, and pitching over an embankment, dragged the four large dinning cars, of which the train was composed after it. The scene which followed was an appalling one, for the shattered cars caught fire, and the unfortunate passengers had the prospect of being burned alive. This fate, however, was spared them, but the accident was immediately responsible for four deaths, the driver being killed instantaneously, while the fireman and two passengers received such injuries that they died within a short time of being rescued from the wrecked train. The occasion was noteworthy for the brave attempt made by a postman and a railway hand to avert the disaster. IChe postman had taken the trolly which caused the accident to the railway gates, so as to transfer to the platform the mail he had just brought down. While he was absent in search of the keys of the gates the boys got hold of the trolly and ran it on to the line. Although the express was signalled to pass the station the postman and the other jnmped down on to the line and strove to turn the trolly off the rails, but a yell from the platform told them that the express was upon them, and they only jnst managed to save their own lives. "If by staying I could have got that barrow ont of the way," said the postman afterwards, " 1 would willingly have given my life to save that express, bnt it couldn't be done. Yes, 1 would, but it would have done nobody any good. Kichardson and Ii jtzsb rolled on the platfotm as the express 1 rushed through—in fact, it almost blew us on. Kichardson thought I was killed, and 11 tell you I thought he was. 1 never was so frightened in my life. But if we had only had another half a minute we should have had the barrow out of the way." Talk, of course, is cheap, but the fact remains that these two men alons did what they could, at great risk, to prevent the almost inevitable ■disaster, when all other spectators seem to lisve been paralysed with horror.