MISHAP TO EXPRESS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1280, 12 August 1922, Page 4

MISHAP TO EXPRESS.

DISASTER NARROWLY AVERTED.

ACCIDENT NEAR DRURY

It was not till 4.53 o’c'loqk this morning that the Wellington express passed through : Te Awamutu on her southward journey. It appears that the south-hound express was derailed near Drury at 8 o’clock last night, and narrowly escaped disaster. The train crashed into a group of straying chttle near a curved embankment. The engine jumped the points on to a siding, and the tender and two postal vans and an unoccupied passenger car were, thrown on to the side of the line. Luckily none of the vehicles overturned, though the engine and tender rocked fearfully. Nobody was injured.

LOCAL RESIDENT’S ACCOUNT.

DISASTER NARROWLY MISSED

A local resident who happened to he in the first occupied passenger carriage told a Waipa Post reporter that the first intimation of the incident was a severe jolt, but not of such violence as to indicate the series nature of the mishap. Luckily, when the engine struck the cattle it moved to the left,- crossing three sets of rails and became stranded, with the tender and postal vans across the line. Had the engine gone toward the left a terrible disaster would have eventuated, as the train would have fallen over a 15-foot embankment, and the carriages would most likely have telescoped, with direful results. As the line was completely 'blocked, another train had to be made up, the necessary engine and carriags toeing obtained from Mercer.

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

TRACK MUCH TORN AND TWISTED.

AUCKLAND, This Day.

Passengers’ luggage and mails on the train derailed at Drury were (Transferred to a second train which left Drury for Wellington at 1.40 a.m. today. A break-down gang left the city promptly to clear the track and repair, the line. The track was torn and twisted for about 75 yards, while all the under? gear of the engine, tender, and postal vans was shattered or torn away. Most of these vehicles were embedded about four feet in the formation of the track. ■

One postal van was careened toward the right embankment, while the other' had a list to the left. That they remained upright at all during the crashing and splintering upheaval among the tangle of the track is beyond explanation. v T Though the enginemen were badly shaken they received no bruises. , The fireman (Mr Millar) was slightly scalded by boiling oil from a feedpipe as he stood at his pest in the cab. He made light of the incident.