RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 13, 13 May 1912, Page 5

RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

A STONE IN THE POINTS. (Per Press Association i Invercargill, May 12. A railway accident of a rather serious nature occurred at the Bluff last evening, when a passenger train from Invercargill collided with a goods train waiting on a siding about 400 yards from the Bluff railway station. The ac ciderit occurred through some person, as yet undiscovered, placing a stone in the points. The passenger train, which left town at 5.10 p.m., was a fully-laden one, and had it not been for the automatic application of the Westinghouse brake a serious disaster might have occurred. As it was, the train ran on to the siding and collided violently with a shunting engine which was standing on the rails, connected with a long line of trucks. The second to last passenger car, however, jumped the points, severing the air-brake connection, and this automatically stopped the train. The impact was sufficient to throw the fireman (Harry Baxter) violently from the cab of tin passenger train on to the tender, and he received several nasty injuries, in clud'ng a broken nose. He was alsc severely cut about the head. His eon dition to-night was, however, reported to be not very serious. There will be an exhaustive enquiry into the cii cumstances of the accident.