RESCUE WORK IN SUBWAY

Southland Times, Issue 23512, 19 May 1938, Page 5

RESCUE WORK IN SUBWAY

SCENE AFTER FATAL TRAIN COLLISION CHARING CROSS A VAST CASUALTY STATION (United Press Assn-—Telegraph Copyright) LONDON, May 17. Charing Cross was converted into a vast casualty clearing station and dozens of doctors, students and nurses, rushed from the Westminster and Charing Cross hospitals, worked feverishly by the light of flares and torches to extricate the injured and ease the suffering of those seriously injured in the collision between two trains in the underground railway. Many passengers under the debris and others lying on the track were given injections of morphia and cylinders of oxygen were carried into the tunnel to revive the worst cases in the foul atmosphere. Forty firemen and railway workers assisted in the extrication of the injured amid the deafening noise of the drills being used to cut a way through the wreckage. The police faced an enormous task in controlling thousands of people in the vicinity of Charing Cross station where there were ambulances and fire engines four deep. The greatest difficulty. was experienced in removing the patients because of the crowds. The melancholy procession continued for two and a-half hours, after which the last four of those who were trapped were extricated as the result of the superhuman efforts of the rescuers who, stripped to the waist, were forced to jack up the carriage. Almost the entire resources of the Charing Cross Hospital were placed at the disposal of the rescuers and many patients were removed from their beds to accommodate those who were injured, including the guard of the front train who suffered a broken leg. The other driver was not injured. Most of the victims were occupants of the front carriages of the oncoming train. A member of the railway staff who was among the first of the rescuers said a short circuit after the crash had caused the fire, which was put out by carriage extinguishers. The current had then been cut off. The Minister of Transport (Dr E. L. Burgin) and Lord Ashfield, chairman of the Transport Board, visited the wreck. The underground system has a remarkable' record of safety, and the chances of a collision as a result of a technical fault are estimated at a million to one.