BRIDGE WAS RIDDLED WITH BORER AND ANTS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17881, 24 June 1926, Page 4

BRIDGE WAS RIDDLED WITH BORER AND ANTS

DISCOVERY AFTER RAILWAY SMASH IN QUEENSLAND. CORONER STOPS WORK OF DEMOLISHING REMAINING TRESTLES. (Special to the “ Star. ”) SYDNEY, June IS. One thing stands out clearly* as a result of the tragic train smash at Aberdeen last week—a terrible indictment of the Railway* Commissioners—one Avhich the coroner has already inquired into unofficially. The trestle, through which the train crashed, killing four persons, and injuring more than 50 others, Avas decayed and eaten by* Avhite ants and borers to such an extent that its crumpling Avas just a matter of time. A sample of wood from one of the main girders, which Avas submitted to an expert for examination, was found to be “in an advanced state of decay*, due to dry rot.” Another sample, taken from the trestles, was decribed by him to be an “excellent sample of the Avojk of Avhite ants.” Other girders, even to lay*men, showed marks of decay* in gaping fissures, and all the samples were taken from that portion of the trestle bridge through which the second engine of the Brisbane mail train crashed and dragged the carriages after it. It is authoritatively stated that the marks of dry rot and white ants were noticed in the girders as far back as six years ago. Soon after the smash, employees of the Railway Department commenced to tear doAvn what remained of the smashed bridge, but the local coroner stepped in and ordered the. work to cease. Exhibits from the bridge Avould form important eA-idence in the inquiry he proposed to hold, he informed the engineer in charge of the demolishing. Another important feature of the occurrence, and one which is being pointed to on all sides as extreme criticism of the commissioners, is that, alongside the old trestle bridge, concrete piers, to form the foundation of a stronger bridge, were laid before the commencement of the Avorld Avar. It is said that, engineers at that time Avere satisfied that the old bridge had only a few months of real serA’ice left, and the question is being asked why*, the work was not proceeded with at once. The building of the tracks across the concrete piers Avas not a tremendous job, for, the day folloAving the accident, temporary tracks Avere laid across them AA’ithin 24 hours.

Of those Avho were seriously injured in the smash. Miss Marie Burke and Mr Wa.rde Morgan are still in hospital. The life of the latter, Avho has a fractured spine, has been despaired of, but he is said to ha\ r e a fighting chance. Miss Burke had many pieces of glass in her back, but these have been removed, and she is on the mend. Miss Dalziell, aged 16, daughter of the manager of the Bank of Australasia at Rockhampton, one of the killed, had been at school in England, and had returned to Sydney* only the week before the smash. She Avas returning to her parents after an absence of four years, and was looking forward to the reunion with the family when she left Sy*dney. A typical story of the crash was told by* Mr Walter Bush, a shearer, avlio was On the Avay to a Queensland shed. He was in the carriage next the engine which crashed through the bridge, with some mates. "There was a creaking, crashing, and tearing away. We seemed to plunge a tremendous distance, and I was partially stunned. So terribly* smashed was the carriage in Avhich I was seated that after „the smash I was able to Avalk clean out of the debris. "The carriage had literally fallen to pieces. I cannot say* how my* fellow passengers were at the moment. We had few lights, and the Avork of extricating the injured and those pinned underneath the debris Avas carried out with the utmost difficulty*. The two cars most Avrecked crashed right through the A'iaduct, and, I should say, fell 30 feet. “A foreigner, who Avas standing up, Avas killed instantly*. Another unfortunate man Avas pinned beneath the o\*erturned undercarriage of the Avreckfed car, and the work of extricating him was a most painful and tedious one. Lifting jacks were the only thing with which Ave could do any good. “Country folk worked quietly* and expeditiously, attending to the dead and Avounded and arranging for their transference to hospital. There seemed to be miles of cars on the scene within a feAV minutes, and all the rescuers Avorked like demons.” All passengers inter\*iewed agreed Avith the summing up of those who A’iewed the Avreckage next day. “It was a miracle that the list of killed was not. enormous,” they said. The driver and fireman of the engine which ploughed through the bridge and was half buried in the earth, escaped Avith ComparatiA*ely* slight injuries.