RAILWAY DISASTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 44

RAILWAY DISASTER.

APPALLING SCENES. FIFTY PEOPLE DROWNED. The shocking news was received in Paris on November 23 of a great railway disaster on the State line at Thouet, between Angers and Poitiers, where part of a train plunged into tfhe swollen stream Fifty people wer e drowned. The accident happened about a mile and a-half from Saumur, at a little place called Brio-sur-Thouet, where there is a bridge over a stream called Le Thouet. A train drawn by two engines, and with about 100 passengers and some goods vans, left Angers for Poitiers at 5.2 in the morning, and rea-ched Montreuil-Bel- ■ lay at 7.24. The bridge over the stream J is only a short distance away, and is about I 160 ft long. The recent rains had converted the stream into a raging torrent, and probably undermined the bridge. The . flood was very high all night, and when the train arrived the bridge suddenly gave way. There was a great crash. The engines, the tenders, and all the vans, and nearly all the passenger cans, plunged into the stream below. j The spot seems to have been a very isolated one, and no boats were to be had near by. The country round about was flooded, and this added to the difficulties of the work of rescue. Assistance was sent from Tours, but hours passed before any effective help could be given. Little by little, however, all the country people rounVl arrived, and about 1000 of them were soon in the vicinity of the scene. I Rescue operations were carried on in the midst of a pouring rain. Eleven passengers were helped out of a perilous fesitionin one of the cars in mid-stream, ut no means were at hand to convey them to safety on the banks. The cur- , rent in the stream was like a raging torrent. The rescuers made superhuman efforts to approach the cars that were lying in the stream, and several of them j risked their lives. 0n e of them, a well- , known local tradesman, M. Bouillet, was | actually carried away by the flood, and I lost his life while trying to save others. Two small boats, which were brought down the stream, were almost dashed to pieces against the pillars of the bridge. One of the escaped passengers, a chauffeur from Thouars, remained in a desperate position in the stream for two hours, and held himself fast with both hands to the branches of a bush before he could be rescued. He was conveyed immediately to the Saumur Hospital. An attempt was made to construct a sort of raft with empty casks, but it failed. I Meanwhile a number of passengers who had been unable to crawl out of the cars I were calling for help. ' They clung to the roofs and windows or. caught hold of the branches of the shrubs along the banks. The spectacle was a harrowing one. From either side hundreds of willing men were helpless to approach the unfortunate victims, and one by one they could be seen swooning and dropping away. They were immediately carried down stream by the flood, and most of them were drowned. ' As they dropped away some of them uttered a piercing scream, which sent a shudder through the witnesses of the hor. rible scenes. Several companies of soldiers then arrived, and, together with the firemen of ! Montreuil, they managed at last to rescue the remaining passengers, who had been hours in the water.