TWO TRAINS COLLIDE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18583, 18 December 1934, Page 9

TWO TRAINS COLLIDE

CRASHED HEAD-ON ;• FIREMAN INJURED • V JL STRATFORD LINE MISHAP o . i (Per Press.Association.> : V STRATFORD, hist night. The first accident on the Stratford main',trunk. 'liiie' ogCurrcil to-day near Pohoknra, when the «i.2(i a.in. train from Stratford crashed head-on into a special goods train coining tow aids hero. j. . The drivers of botli trains escaped unhurt, but the firemen, Mr. I*’. H. p. Quayle, of Stratford, and Mr. E. U Campibp, of New' Plymouth, were injured. W*'- Qiiavle suffered n fracture of the. right collarbone, 'and severe bruistvi on the chest, and Mr. Campion was injured on the right ankle and broke a bone in. his foot. Both are progressing favorably. The crash oceorerd on this side of the Whaugamomonn tunnel, about three- miles past Pohoknra. Had the trains tnpt in the tunnel itself there Would have been Utile chance for the mien in the cabs of both trains.

t-Xirmtotlifitely on receipt pf the nows the Stratford ambulance, was dispatched to PoKokura and arrived at the Station to find the injured* men ready to be. brought to StratforU, their toItifiefl haVing been attended b}r the district purse from Whnngamomona. Eleven wagons and both engines were derailed. 7

A breakdown train was sent from Wanganui in an endeavor to clear the line in time for the passage of tho Auckland express to-night to avoid transhipping passengers and mails. The line was badly torn up, and as the collision occurred in a cutting great difficulty is being experienced in clearing the line, which was also torn up. It is impossible. to build a side track around tho wreckage, and the distance the wreckage will have to be carried will make tho task a long one.