TRAIN DISASTER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 955, 27 December 1933, Page 7

TRAIN DISASTER.

Conflicting Evidence of Officials. SIGNALS SLOW TO ACT. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received December 27, 1.5 pjn.) PARIS. December 26. The driver of the Strasbourg train, Dudigny, stated that he suddenly saw the rear red light of the Nancy express twenty yards distant. “ I applied the brakes, but hit it with a terrific crash,” he said. “We had just passed two open signals and did not hear the warning detonators or the alarm whistle, which should automatically have operated if the danger signals were ignored.” Passengers on the last Strasbourg coach confirm the statement that the detonators exploded only when their carriage had passed. On the contrary, the guard of the Nancy train, descending to the track just before the crash, contends that he saw the signals at danger, while the gatekeeper says he heard a warning whistle. In view of th econfiict of evidence, a test engine traversed the line and established the fact that the signals were slow to act owing to frost.