TRAMWAY DISASTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19257, 22 August 1924, Page 7

TRAMWAY DISASTER

TRAGEDY IN SYDNEY. FALL OVER EMBANKMENT. TWO PERSONS KILLED AND MANY INJURED. Prase Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, August 21. Shortly before 7 o’clock this morning a double tramcar ran off the line at MacMahon’s Point. It dropped over an embankment and fell several feet and crashed into an outhouse. Both parts of the ear were smashed. Two men were killed and 20 persons were injured. One of the coupled cars was electrically faulty, and the motor-man was driving from the second car in accordance with departmental regulations, while tho conductor was on tho front car. When the car reached the steep Blues Point road it got out of control, dashed at terrific speed down the l.ill for about a quarter of a mile, cut across the loop, and passed over the embankment. One of the killed is Harry Leeds, a police constable, and the other has not yet been identified.

GAR’S MAD CAREER. SPEED OF 50 MILES AN KQUR. A TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE. SYDNEY, August 21. (Received August 21, at 8 p.m.) Tho second man who was killed was a labourer named Lambert. The car had about 90 passengers on board. The driver made frantic efforts to obtain control of the car right up to the time of the crash. Travelling at 50 miles an hour the tram jumped the rails 100 yards from the loop and, travelling on the concrete roadway, tore across both sets of rails. The leaping car torpedoed over a 2-ift retaining wall, across a 12ft road, and crashed into a brick outhouse, which was shattered, the thick wall of the main dwelling also being badly cracked.

Constable Leeds, who was on the front of the rear car, fell beneath 1 the front car when it telescoped the one behind, and was crushed to death. The conductor Cowan, who was on the front of the first car was seriously injured, and was saved from instant death only by the wall of tho outhouse giving way so easily. Both the victims had to be cut out "of the wreckage with axes. All the passengers who were not seriously injured were severely shaken and were unable to proceed to their places of employment. Ambulances were quickly on the scene, and 10 seriously injured persons were sent to hospital. A heavy mist was one of the contributing causes of the disaster, as it made the rails greasy and prevented the wheels from gripping. The driver courageously stuck to his post, trying every available means to stop the runaway till the moment of the crash.

The injured list now amounts to 27. Two or three have broken limbs, and the others are mostly suffering from bruises and severe shock. Numbers are suffering from slighter shock, from which they are expected quickly to recover. Amongst these some took the risk of jumping off the madly rushing tram when they saw that a crash was inevitable.

Prior to the accident there had been a stoppage of the line and the drivers, who were making up time, passed rome of the usual calling places without stopping. Bub for this there would have been considerably more passengers on board.