LEVEL CROSSING CRASH

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1931, Page 2

LEVEL CROSSING CRASH

FIVE CHILDREN KILLED.

TRAIN AND MOTOR-BUS.

Sydney, Aug. 13.

A graphic story was told by an eyewitness of the level-crossing smash at Toodyay, Western Australia, last week, when five schoolchildren were killed and 12 injured, several seriously. A motorbus taking 34 country children to Toodyay school came into collision with a special wheat train travelling from Toodyay toward Piawaning. Mr. Clive Piesse, who lives a few yards from the crossing, said that it was his custom to take his two infant children, to. the verandah of his home to allow them to watch the early-morning, train pass. Yesterday morning, however, he did not do so because of the fog, which he considered w’ould render the train iiivisible. He heard the train whistle ds tit approached the . crossing .aS: he whs ‘Walking from the back door to the wood-' shed. ■ : ' i “I heard a loud. crash,” Mr. Piesqe said; “a'ndj lookihg in the direction of tne. crossing, saw a charabanc being pushed slowly.along, the rail? pgst,my hou,s,e... J did not hear any shouting and I was so stunned by what I saw that for the moment I did not realise the full significance of what had happened. I did not imagine that it was the school children’s charabanc.

“The silence and the 'awe-inspiring slowness, but certainty, with which the huge vehicle was being pushed along the rails was uncanny. The great bulk of the charabanc, with the steam-enshroud-ed locomotive behind it, loomed out of the fog. There was not a sound of human voices that I could hear, and the silence awed me, so that, perhaps, my senses were minibed.

“Then 1 saw the terrible thing. The side of the charabanc was forced slowly, inch by inch it seemed to me, against a stout, massive fence guarding the cattlepit. “The side of the vehicle burst open as I watched and out of the gaping hole that had been made poured a seemingly unending stream of children.: “I could scarcely believe my eyes. School books and fancy costumes rained on the ground on top of them, and then I realised exactly the nature of the disaster to which I had beep a witness. I then recollected that it was just about the hour when ' boys and girls from Coondie.' and other places went to school by bus. “Calling out to my wife to come quickly,' I set off at a, run. I climbed through the wreckage and* made direct to the home, of Dr. Carlin, who lives on the opposite side of the line, and about the same distance from it as my home. He hurried back with me and when I reached the line other residents had arrived and had begun the task of attending to. the injured and extricating the dead.

‘‘lt was marvellous how everybody worked. The women were womleriul. They seemed to keep their heads better than the men, and worked in silence, lifting out huddled little forms ami bandaging and carrying water to lho.se who cried for it.

“The men took on the heavier tasks. Crowbars and other implements were produced, seemingly from nowhere, and herculean efforts were applied to the work of releasing those who were, beneath ' th 6 train. Heartrending work lit was. The children were so silent; everything was silent. It was the silence that impressed me from the time the-first; rounds of. the, crash. -tlietl .ftway/* !