TRAIN DISASTER

Wairarapa Age, 22 March 1929, Page 5

TRAIN DISASTER

HEAD ON COLLISION IN CANADA. SEVENTEEN PEOPLE KILLED CARRIAGES ON FIRE ! , United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. TORONTO, March 20. Seventeen people are dead, in eluding thirteen paacengera, while five were seriously injured in a head-on collision between two Canadian National Railway trams .on Wednesday at Drocourt, near Parry Sound, Ontario. The passengers on the sleeping care returned hero on Wednesdav, giving more definite word of the disaster. They reported that the car next to the baggage car caught fire after tihe wreck, and several passengers were unable to escape. They teld graphic stories of heroic a»tempts to escape cremation. The two trains were scheduled to meet at Waubemik, fast north of here, bat it is reported that owing to one being behind schedule it had been arranged that they should meet at a point further north. Practically ali the passengers were asleep when the wreck occurred Both baggage cars were telescoped, and the two engines were reduced to a mans of twist jd steel. Uninjured passengers report heart-rending scenes. One woman died calling for help for her child in the wreck. The death list may reach over 20. Mr C. E. Harcourt, a paasengwr, stated that he saw several skulls tnd human bones burning. One v.onrnn screamed till she was burned to death. It is unofficially stated that one of the trains overran the switch. The deaths occurred in the westbound train, mostly in the sleeper, which caught fire, cremating the bodies of passengers asleep when the accident oe- - furred.—(Australian Press Association —United Service.)