Railway Disaster.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXXV, Issue 5620, 28 May 1914, Page 2

Railway Disaster.

THREE DEATHS.EIGHT INJURED ; DETAILS OF THE CATASTROPHE ' GRAPHIC ACCOUNT BY PASSENGERS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Wednesday. A graphic story of the smash was told by Mr J. N. Trinear, of Te Kuiti, who was a passenger in the carriage immediately behind the sleeping car. "We reached Whanganiarino about 5 o'clock, and suddenly heard the whistles of two engine's. Then the brakes were applied, and immediatelv afterwards there was a crash like a thunderbolt and the sensation of an earthquake. The train came to a standstill, and 1 and the other passengers scrambled out and hurried to the front of the train in the darkness. We found that a goods train of -100 tons was partly on the main line and partly on a siding, and that the express had crashed into it. The engine was overturned, and the mail van had telescoped with the sleeping car. The mail van had crashed through almost to within six feet of the end of the sleeping compartments. Fortunately, it had telescoped at an angle, and" this apparently was responsible for the escape of many of the occupants of the sleeper. As soon as it was realised what had happened lights were obtained, the only two available being the guard's lamp and an acetylene light. An axe was also procured, and this was immediately put to use in breaking open the sleeping compartment _ in which the passengeis were imprisoned, and after about an hour's labour the whole of them were freed. Mr Grimstone was apparently severely injured internally. Mr Petersen acted heroically while we were trying to get the three men out. While we were endeavouring to raise the weight from him he kept calling oik to the other two men to cheer up, and encouraged the rescuers in their work. "That's better," he called out, when we lifted part of the weight, and he seemed to be relieved. He bore up right to the end, and when finally the wreckage pinliing him was lifted he cried, "I'm gone," and expired. Mr Grimstone and Mr Swinson were carried out after Mr Stevens, Mr Swinson apparently having a broken thigh. Mr Donaldson had a remarkable escape from death, and it was inexplicable why he was not pinned with the j others. When daybreak came the scene was an awe-inspiring one. The wreckage was heaped all round, and the engine of the express was lying on its side across a creek, with one of the goods train trucks heaped on the top of it, and the steam still hissing. About six of the trucks of the goods train had been shattered by the impact, and the splintered remains were strewn about, iron frameworks being twisted like tin. The mail van was lying almost' on the top of the sleeping car, which it had telescoped." "Surprise was expressed by the ■ passengers at the delay in receiving i help from Mercer," continued Mr Trinear. "Several of the passengers urged that the goods train, which ; was capable of travelling, should i proceed with the injured to Hamilton, hut the officials would not allow it, and although Mercer was . only six miles away, assistance in - the shape' of two doctors and police, • did not arrive until three hours and \ a half after the smash." I Speaking of the incidents which ' immediately preceded the smash, Mr \ Trinear said that from inquiries he \ made on the spot, he understood that the distant signals were in favour \ of the express, but the points at , Whangamarino station were against , it. The home signal at the station, however, was said to be against i the express. The goods train, which f had 100 tons of freight, was partly , in the siding and partly on the main . line. The engine driver and the fire- \ man realised the danger, and man- , aged to jump clear as the engine was tumbling over. There were three clerks employed in the mail van, and all had a miraculous escape. Hearing the shriek- ' ing of the whistles, they ran to the ' fore part of the van to look through ' the window, and this undoubtedly ' saved them. The next moment the '■ van struck a water tank by the side j of the line, the contents of which 1 deluged the fore part of the train, 1 and the coach telescoped, leaving a 1 very limited space just where the | clerks had run to. They managed to crawl through an aperture in the 1 side of the van. 1 The porter who was operating the levers of the siding points sustained a broken arm, but otherwise escaped. SLEEPING CAR ESCAPEES. An interesting tale of their experiences was told by Messrs D. M. Sutherland and James Borrie, two farmers from Waitnate, South Canterbury, who were among the three uninjured occupants of the sleeper, and took a prominent part in the extrication of their companions. "We were in the last compartment of the sleeper," said Mr Sutherland, "next to the smoking carriage, and we were awakened by the crash of the collision. This was followed by a series of bumps, which we afterwards attributed to the smashing of the woodwork as the sleeper telescoped. You could hear the bumps coming nearer, and before he could move my friend was knocked out of his berth by something which crashed into the partition wall. The next thing we knew wafl that we | were being suffocated by gas, and 1 got up and put a boot through the glass of the window. We managed to get out somehow, arid then we saw that the postal van had ploughed right through the sleeper, and that the end of if had just stopped short of our compartment. If it had gone a yard* further we should certainly have been injured like the rest. I ran' along the two carriages, smashing all the windows 1 could see, in order to let the gas out. '1 he steam from the heating-pipes was escaping ; with a loud noise, but someone cut I off the supply almost immediately. We could hear cries for help coming from among the wreckage, and a party of us started in at once to get them out. It was quite dark, and owing to the escaping gas we could not bring lamps near the wreck for some time." "All the lamps seemed to be out when we went to bed," put in Mr Borrie, who is Mr Sutherland's partner, "though possibly the one in the corridor was alight. I suppose all of them were jarred out when the crash came, and it is fortunate that the escaping gas did not catch fire, l! it had, I don't think anybody in the sleeper would have been saved. "We got a tomahawk from some workmen's huts near the line," continued Mr Sutherland, "and we started to chop the woodwork away. The guard's lamp and a bicycle lamp were brought along, and we saw that the postal van had pushed the occupants of all the compartments into a space of about nine feet, where they lay among a twisted mass of woodwork. It was a difficult matter to get at them, as only six or eight of us could work together. There was always a danger of hurting one man while getting another out, and it was over two hours before we removed the last of them. Mr Orton Stevens was not, removed for an hour and a-half. We found Mr Petersen lying on a seat with the ceiling lamp crushed into his chest. The woodwork had also come down upon his head, but he was alive. We got as many hunk beds as possible out on to the side of the line, together with blankets, and the injured men wera laid on these as they were removed. There was a Maori nurse on the train, and she worked like a Trojan. Mr Stevens seemed to have been affected by the ! gas, and I thought I saw them trying artificial respiration on him. : I He appeared to come round, but suddenly collapsed and died." "It is a wonder to me," observed , Mr Borrie, "that everybody in the

sleeper was not killed. The postal van bored right into it between the roof and the floor, smashing all the woodwork to matchwood. The sleeping car porter had a marvellous escape for he was found between the floors of the van and the sleeper, uninjured. The postal officers, I was told, were merely thrown from one end of their van to the other. The floor of our car, with the undergear, was quite intact." "You can trust me never to travel in a sleeper at the front of a train after this," said Mr Sutherland, in conclusion, "In an ordinary carriage one has a chance of getting out, but there is none in a sleeping car."

IN THE MAIL VAN. A most extraordinary escape from death, was that of the three mail sorters, who were in the first carriage on the train, next the engine. There were three of them, H. Clark, E. Bristol and S. Scott, all of Auckland. Just before the smash they had completed sorting the mail, and were standing in the back portion of the carriage tying the letters into bundles.

Interviewed, Clark said that he hadn't a very clear recollection of what the impact itself was like, but he hist remembers finding himself jambed between a mass of complicated wreckage and the wall of the carriage. "1 hadn't an inch to move," he said, "and 1 was dazed with the pain and shock. The lights had, of course, gone out, and 1 could see nothing, but 1 could hear the gas hissing out of the reservoirs under the carriage. The thought of fire at once struck me, and I called out to my mates, but for a few minutes got no answer. Presently they answered, and I found that they were quite close to me. We joined hands, and by dint of a lot of hard pulling got one another free. We crawled and pushed our way through the splintered wood, mail-bags, and debris until we found a hole big enough to get through. When we made a passage through this, we found that there was still the wall of the other carriage preventing our escape, but after a big struggle that hardly left any clothes on us we got through a window, and some people outside helped us to the ground. We all immediately; called a warning not to light matches, for we could still near the gas escaping.

'When lamps came it seemed that our escape had been nothing less than a miracle. Our carriage and the sleeper behind us had been completely telescoped, and the mass of wreckage made me feel that I had been exceedingly fortunate in escaping with a few bruises and cuts." HOW THE SIGNALS WERE. THE QUESTION OF CONTRACTION. By Telegraph Press Association. Auckland, 'lhursday. Immediately after the railway accident at Whangamarino a number of railway officials and passengers proceeded to the building in which the signal levers are housed. They found the lever in position to display a red light for danger at the home signal 200 yards distant, but the fog was sufficiently dense to make it impossible for the porter who operated the lever to see what light was showing from the station platform. After having noted that the lever stood correctly set for danger, and was still locked with the patent lock, the party proceeded to the signal and found a green light displayed instead : of a red.

The night was very cold and it is presumed that the wires contracted and caused the wrung signal to be hoisted, as was the case in the Temora, New South Wales, railway smash two months ago.

THE INQUEST OPENED. ADJOURNED TUX STH JUNE. By Telegraph. —Press Association. Auckland, Thursday. The coroner's inquest on the bodies of the three victims of the railway disaster was opened this morning. After evidence of identification had been taken, the inquest was adjourned till Friday week, sth June. The body of Mr Grimshaw, who died at the Waikato Hospital yesterday afternoon, was this morning taken to Auckland,where the inquest will be held on all the victims of the catastrophe. On enquiry at the Waikato Hospital this morning we were pleased to learn that Mr Swinson had passed a fair night, and is doing very well. --- ~-\