Two Men Killed by a Train.

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 61, 1 February 1895, Page 4

Two Men Killed by a Train.

Two line repairers met with a terrible death on the railway between Melbourne and Richmond the other morning. There are three double lines of rails over this section, and the trains are very numerous, rendering the work decidedly dangerous. The two men, O’Halloran and Smith, were engaged screwing up a bolt on the outside rail of the down Oakleigh track. The bolt was a stubborn one, and the task was harder than usual, and in consequence of this fact they became so absorbed in their work that they forgot all about the Oakleigh train, due to pass them about 9.33. They turned their backs on the train and screwed away at the bolt while the Hawthorn train, running into the city, thundered past them. The noise of the Hawthorn train prevented them from hearing the Oakleigh train as it bore down on them round the curve. No one observed the danger till the last moment. The fireman of the train, on whose side of the line the men were working, was firing, and did not look up till the engine was within a stroke of the men. It was too late to do anything. He could only shout out a horror-stricken exclamation, and clutch the - enginedriver by the sleeve while he pointed to the rails. The driver understood, shut off steam and put on the brakes, but a “sweep of the engine carried the train over the unfortunate repairers, crushing them beneath the wheels as it passed, and when the train pulled up a few yards further on all that was left of the two men was an unrecognisable mass.