RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7073, 16 October 1884, Page 3

RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

(Peb United Pbess Association.)

Auckland, October 15,

An accident ■ occurred on the Auckland line this morning. A shunting engine was standing taking coal, the driver being engaged oiling the wheels, while the fireman was on the engine. A truck being shunted struck the engine rather violently and caused the regulator to fall down, letting steam into the cylinders. The engine started off, but had not gone many yards before the fireman became alarmed and jumped off, leaving the engine going at half speed, uncontrolled, along the line towards the Domain tunnel. Engineer Burett had bean thrown againot a water-tank, and had two of his fingers cut off. Great alarm was felt, as tha Onehunga train, with a large number of passengers coming into business, and school children, had left Newmarket just about tha time of the accident. A collision between this train and the runaway engine occurred in tha tunnel. Soon after the driver of the Onehunga train turned the bend in the tunnel ha saw an engine coming from the opposite direction, and he blew the whistle as loudly as he could. As the approaching engine showed no decrease in its speed, he concluded that there was something wrong, and put on his brake. Naturally great excitement prevailed among the passengers on the train, and the guard called to them to hold on and lie down, but the shock of the collision did not prove bo great as was expeoted. The passengers were thrown in every direction, but not one of them was hurt. The front of the Onehunga engine was broken and its cow-catcher carried away. Neither the carriages nor the engine of the train were thrown off the line. A party of workmen arrived, but their services were not needed, and both engines came safely into town. The escape from a serious collision was miraculous. If the runaway engine had been two minutes earlier the collision would have occurred near the bend of the tunnel, and the driver of the train could not have seen it in time to slow down; and if two minutes later the train would have been going down the heavy Parnell incline, coming up which had exhausted the power of the runaway engine and reduced its momentum.