COLLISION IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13418, 16 March 1914, Page 5

COLLISION IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

EXPRESS CRASHES INTO GOODS

TRAIN

TWO CARRIAGES TELESCOPED.

FOURTEEN PERSONS KILLED

SEVERAL INJURED

(Received March, 15, 5.5 p.m.) y Sydney, March 15,

Th« Temora mail train from Sydney crashed into a stationary goods train at Exeter yest^ay, telescoping a passenger car and a sleeping-car, and derailing the engine.

The wildest confusion resulted

I An official message estates that fourteen persons were killed, and many were injured.

Later advices state that confusion still exists regarding the identification of those killed and injured.

The latest advice giving the, corrected list of the killed is "as-follows:— Mr. Heaver, senior. Arthur Heaver. Alice Heaver. . " • Mail-Guard Bray. J, C. Minnis. Mrs. Minnis. G. L. Pollard. iMrs. Clarke. Fred. Knrzenhaigen. Miss Eglinton. Miss Shelley. Mrs. L. Parker. A youth supposed to be naoi"d Walker. :

A woman, believed to be Mrs. Karzenhagen. ' Nineteen injured were sent to the hospital at Bowral, where they are progressing favourably. The disaster is the most terrible in the history of the New South Wales railways. . ; Reports state that at the moment vf tlie impact the goods train was being shunted on to a siding to clear the main line and allow the Temora mail to pass. ■ A dense fog obscured the signals^ and the mail train crashed into the" goods train, telescoping two carriages. Neither engine left the rails. The first arrivals state that ihe scene was one of indescribable horror. The mail van was reduced to matchwood, and there were ghastly h^aps of human beings, th-e screams and groans of imprisoned victims coming from the mass of debris. The saddest feature of the disaster was that the Heaver family were travelling to Cootamundra to Irnry Mrs. Heaver, senior, whose body was on the train. The widower, a daughter, a daughter-in-law were killed, and a son was seriously injured. Bray, the guard of the mail train, was about to throw oiit a mail bag when he was killed. His mate, who was in the same carriage, escaped.

Another sad case was that of a father, mother, and three young children who were buried in the debris. The eldest appealed piteously to his mother for help. She replied, "Love, I cannot help you." The children were ultimately rescued but the parents were dead.