HEAD-ON COLLISION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26596, 20 October 1947, Page 5

HEAD-ON COLLISION

MAIL TRAINS INVOLVED AUSTRALIAN RAIL DISASTER SIX PASSENGERS KILLED Rec. 9.10 p.m. BRISBANE, Oct. 18 Six persons were killed and 13 injured in a head-on smash between two trains at Tamaree siding, about 100 miles north of Brisbane, early this morning. A Bris-bane-bound train from Kockhampton was waiting on the main line for the Townsville mail to pass, when the latter, instead of being switched around a loop, smashed into the stationary train. The dead include the driver and fireman of the Rockhampton train, and three men and a woman who were passengers on the Townsville mail. The two leading coaches of the mail were overturned, and the tender of the Rockhampton train was telescoped through the engine, sealing off the bodies of the fireman and the driver from rescue parties. Doctors, ambulance men, police, and railway workers were rushed from Gympie, five miles away, and from Maryborough, 60 miles to the north. The Railway Department has suspended the night officer who was on duty when the disaster occurred. Almost all the passengers were asleep when the two mail trains crashed head-on. They awoke to find the carriages splintered and the "injured lying groaning in the debris. Rescuers worked by the light of bonfires of carriage wood, acetylene flares and torches.

So seriously does the Queensland Government regard the accident, which was the second Queensland rail disaster in six months, that it has decided to open a public inquiry

It is stated that the south-bound Rockhampton mail was stationary in the Tamaree siding when the northbound Townsville mail came out of heavy fog on the wrong line. The Townsville mail was skidding on fully-applied brakes when it crashed into the engine of the stationary train. It took more, than two hours to free the bodies of the driver and fireman of the Rockhampton mail. Though it is estimated that its speed was only 15 to 20 miles an hour, the Townsville train knocked the Rockhampton mail back more than 100 feet. The two engines, locked together, rose in an arc and remained supporting each other. Thre three leading coaches were telescoped, and their wooden sides burst open. The crey of the Townsville train, who had amazing escapes from serious injury, said they did not see the Rockhampton mail until they were 30 yards away. The trains carried a total of 500 passengers. The line was clear again less than five hoyrs after the accident.