FIFTEEN KILLED

Southland Times, Issue 25314, 18 June 1935, Page 7

FIFTEEN KILLED

RAILWAY ACCIDENT SPLENDID WORK BY NURSE , A GHASTLY SCENE (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, June 16. Fifteen were killed and 40 injured in the train smash at Welwyn Garden city station. It was the worst smash in the history of the London and North-Eastern Railway. The parcels express, which carried a few passengers, was. travelling at 70 miles an hour at the time of the collision, while the Newcastle express was carrying 200 excursionists, the majority of whom were women. The first arrivals saw a ghastly scene of eight overturned and telescoped carriages from which the moans and screams of the victims arose in the darkness. A nurse, Violet Miles, aged 22, after her escape from death through leaving ,he compartment where her neighbours wanted to sleep; worked throughout the night tending the wounded, after which she collapsed. She was taken to a restaurant, where she revived. Miss Miles is acclaimed as a heroine. She lost her money in the wreckage. A man who was uninjured became demented when he found his wife and daughter dead. . Many women who rushed from their homes to render aid fainted when they saw the appalling scene. A woman who was injured andetaken to hospital cried, “Where’s baby!” A nurse and a policeman hurried to the wreckage and found the baby dead. The majority of the victims were women. W. Powell, a Welsh international footballer, who was a passenger on the Newcastle express, despite an injury worked for hours rescuing others. Firemen using blow-lamps extricated the last victim at 9 a.m. The driver of the parcels train said he was travelling fast when he saw the Newcastle train ahead. He jammed on the brakes, watched the crash coming, and then jumped. The guard of the leading train was killed outright. Toiling through a heavy thunderstorm, the breakdown gang cleared the line at Welwyn at 4 p.m.