TRAIN DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1923, Page 5

TRAIN DISASTER.

350 SOLDIERS KILLED LOSS OF CONTROL. | TERRIBLE DASH TO DEATH. INCIDENT OF WAR. A terrible train tragedy, involving the death of 350 French soldiers, is revealed now, though the accident happened in 1917. It was a tragic incident of the war, and was censored at the time. By Telegraph.—PrOhs Assn.—Copyright. Received June 15, 9.10 p.m. Paris, June 14. One of the most’ frightful tragedies of the war will be revealed by the unveiling next .Sunday of a monument to 350 soldiers who perished in the village of St. Michael de Maurienne, in Savoy, on December 11, 19-17. The facts were censored at the time, and are now published for the first time. Five hundred French .soldiers were returning from Italy, where they had been aiding the Italians to resist the AustroGerman onslaught in the Piave area, and when the train reached Modane the driver protested that it was too heavily loaded to negotiate the gradients through the .Savoy alps, but he obeyed orders to continue the journey. The train then entered the most dangerous ‘ section, where the line ran downhill a considerable distance on a narrow mountain ledge, with a deep gorge below. Here, owing to its weight, the train got beyond control and raced to certain death.’ The excessive speed caused carriage after carriage to take fire, and the men leaping out were crushed to death against the rocks bordering the line. When a curve was reached the engine left the metals and the carriages piled up over it and became a blazing furnace. ■ Of nearly three hundred men still imprisoned in the cars when they were wrecked practically the whole were burned to ashes. Less than 150 of the five hundred were brought out or escaped alive, and the greater part of these were so seriously injured that many died.