A TRAIN SENSATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3829, 2 August 1927, Page 60

A TRAIN SENSATION.

ENGINE DASHES INTO SLIR tragedy narrowly averted. -\ froi 11 ? VELLI * T GTON, July 31. about W * PT CO T IK into Wellington wi?h\ 10 T° C OCk xr n Saturday night met tri*' it dlS T er ? h - at misht bavc heen a las? timnol 11 J t,ain had K °t through tho v 11/i a " d Was approaching the city si nnn C t ) Cng r e raln strai R bt i! >to a huge ti l K t,e hne a shorfc distance from -e K-miarrawarra viaduct running across the road into the city. The ermine behinj ed Int .°, the sll P an d the trucks hehuid were telescoped. The fourth truck left the hue and fell dow n a bank, crashing into a worker’s cottage and shearin-v ™t Sl ; d n e H f P Sleeping in a cot in the house were two children. The truck hit the end of the cot, threw the chddicii out and then toppled over them. One of the- children climbed out from underneath rubbing its eves in wonderment of what had happened. Both children were unharmed. Another worker’s house on the opixisite side of the line also had a part of one side shorn off The line was strewn about with wreckage, but no one was injured at Ineie will be no midnight express to Auckland to-night. The line will probably take some time to clear. An examination of the locality displays confusion worse confounded. The bed in which the children were sleeping bears signs of a hard knock, while the carriage looms large against it. The earth 7n f-ont of the engine reaches to the top of the engine itself. Trucks ar e smashed to matc-iwood, while the steel parts and wheels are thrown into a confused heap. Other trucks are thrown off the hne, while yet again other trucks have come to rest on top of (hem. The houses that were “struck are in the places of impact broken like matchwood.

Many men are at work shovelling away the debris. The goods train comprised between 30 and 40 trucks, njid those trucks that remained on the line have Ivecn taken back to Johnsonville.