DERAILMENT OF EXPRESS

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1933, Page 7

DERAILMENT OF EXPRESS

FIVE PASSENGERS INJURED NEW SOUTH WALES MISHAP ESCAPE MIRACULOUS ONE ENGINE PLOUGHS UP LINE By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 5.5 p.m. Sydney, July 11. The engine of the Wagga express was derailed to-day half a mile from the Bowning station, ten miles from Yass. With its tender the engine ploughed along for 50 yards before it came to a standstill. The first carriage, a sleeper, was badly damaged. The next car was overturned and the other six were derailed and hung precariously over the embankment. About 200 passengers were on the tram and five were injured. They are Ernest Hewish, a fractured skull and. collarbone (believed to be from Sydney), William Dodd (Greenwich), John Davidson (Leeton), Ronald Rudder (Manly) and a man named Dwyer. All were treated at the Yass hospital. Hewish was the only serious case. The railway traffic manager, Mr. Denniss, and Mr. J. Howse, of the- traffic branch, passengers in the wrecked sleeper, were going to attend a conference at Leeton. People soon arrived in response to cries from the wrecked train. Relief gangs were organised and a search made for any others possibly, injured. Passengers on the Melbourne express bound from Sydney passed the scene a few minutes after the derailment and the train was halted to see if help was needed. The injured persons were later brought to Sydney. Passengers declare it was a miracle that all the occupants of - the first and second carriages were not killed or gravely injured, having regard to the severe damage wrought to those two vehicles. One passenger was thrown from the upper bunk through a window to the permanent way. . . The derailment was due to a broken switch rail at catch points some distance back from the scene, causing the engine to leave the rails and tear up the permanent way for a considerable distance.