TRAINS COLLIDE HEAD-ON

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21000, 31 March 1938, Page 12

TRAINS COLLIDE HEAD-ON

SMASH AT AYLESBURY FIREMAN LOSES HIS LIFE By Telegraph—Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, March 30. The second fatal railway crash in the Dominion in less than a week occurred at Aylesbury, on the West Coast line, at 5.30 a.m. to-day. A head-on collision between a goods train from Christchurch and a mixed train from the West Coast resulted in the death of a fireman on the Coast train, Alfred Bailey, aged 34, of Christchurch. Bailey, seeing that a collision was imminent, jumped from the engine, but before he could regain his balance and race clear, a postal and luggage van, which had left the rails, crashed down the bank on him. There were eight passengers in the carriage of the mixed train which was directly behind the engine. All were fortunate, for apart from one woman who was somewhat bruised, there were no major injuries. The cause of the accident is as yet vague, but it is understood that the train from Christchurch was either stationary, or was starting at the time of impact. The damage to the city-bound train was by far the more extensive. The carriage had started to telescope at the end and the two back seats were wrecked, but fortunately for the occupants the telescoping stopped at that. Behind this carriage was a van and this ripped away the couplings and a portion of the carriage platform as it slid down the bank. It was possibly a stroke of luck for the passengers, as the van, with another empty departmental carriage, formed a buffer between the passenger carriage and the rest of the 60 odd vans and trucks which carried a miscellaneous cargo of sheep, cattle, timber, coal and apples. Behind the foremost carriages were four vans full of cases of apples. These were piled one on top of another in indescribable confusion. Most of the woodwork was smashed and apple cases by the hundred burst, strewing thousands of apples amid the wreckage over the permanent way, and for yards on each side of the line. As these vans tore away from the rails they heaped up the ballast into a pile and crashed down on to one of the standards, burying the lights used in the railway automatic signalling system. A similar standard on the other side of the line was also mown down by the postal van.

The Coast-bound train at the time of the crash was on a loop about 100 yards from the Aylesbury station. This train consisted of 50 or 60 heavy steel waggons, several of which were lifted bodily from the rails and were swung sideways so that they lay astride the main track. Twisted steel was evidence of the momentum of the crash. Actually not a great deal of damage was done to the The tenders were pushed almost up to the footplates and cow-catchers, and the fore structures were naturally crumpled. A few of the wheels left the rails, but otherwise there was little damage apparent. By 10.45 a.m. engines had arrived to remove the undamaged rolling stock, and by 11 o’clock a break-down gang from Christchurch was on the scene and a big crane had arrived from Springfield. Every endeavour is being made to clear the main line by tonight, and if necessary, the wreckage on the permanent way will be pushed over into a small depression beside the line so that the track may be repaired for to-night’s traffic. Bailey had been in the railway service for 17 years, operating trains in the Christchurch district since the time of his appointment as a fireman. He was a married man and leaves a wife and daughter aged 10. Early arrivals at the scene of the accident were Mr W. Rogers, Assistant-Traffic Manager at Christchurch and Mr J. Binstead, Chief Locomotive Engineer in the South Island. As to-day was Wednesday there was little inconvenience to passenger traffic as it is a day when the expresses do not run. However, a train from Springfield carrying about 40 school children and some adults was held up at Kirwee and the passengers were transported to Christchurch/by bus. At the time of the accident the guard of the downward train received a severe jolting as did the driver, who, unlike the dead fireman, did not risk a jump. The fireman, who was trapped when the mail van turned on its side, was crushed and killed instantly, and his body had to be dug out. Mail Retrieved Postal officials also visited Aylesbury to retrieve the mail which was removed from the van through a hole hacked in the roof. Luggr -•? and goods were also removed through this hole. It is understood that at the time of the impact the driver and fireman of the train from Christchurch were not on the footplate. With no hope of avoiding the collision, they raced down the bank beside the line and through the fence adjoining it as one of them remarked to a by-stander, he was chased through the fence by beer barrels ir a truck directly behind the overturned mail car. The cargo consisted of cases of apples and about a dozen empty beer barrels which, when the truck overturned, were decanted through the fence. Apart from the death of the fireman, there were no other serious injuries. Those who suffered most were a passenger, Mrs Rusbatch of Arthur’s Pass, who received head injUx._s and shock, nnd Driver Young, C-. -r’ urch. of the down train, who received head injuries and shock. Three passenger* who suffered bruising were Mr E. Quinn, of Waiuta, and Mr T. McGuiness, and Mr A. B. Shand, of Palmerston North.

The remaining passengers, all of whom were uninjured, were:—Miss Dunn, of Moana, and Messrs Rusbatch. a railway employee, of Arthur’s Pass. W. Downing and Dalziell, both cl Kotuku. In addition, a two year old

child of Mr and Mrs Rusbatch was not hurt. The members of the Rusbatch family had a narrow escape, for they were sitting at the end of the cam. -’2 next to the engine of the down train. Actually the child was surrounded by debris, but did not receive a scratch.