THE MAIN TRUNK DISASTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18822, 12 July 1923, Page 9

THE MAIN TRUNK DISASTER

IN THE POSTAL VAN. MOST MIRACULOUS ESCAPE. DRAMATIC INCIDENTS OF RESCUE. TERRIBLY MANGLED VICTIMS. After having been on duty ever since they left Auckland on Thursday night, working after the accident at rescuing people and then at the shifting of over 300 bags of mail matter over the several slips, handling them many times, the postal officials who were in the postal van of the doomed train returned to Auckland on Saturday by the relief train arriving shortly after five p.in. They were utterly exhausted, having had no sleep since the accident happened. On arrival at the Auckland platform they were met and warmly congratulated on the escape by a number of their colleagues of the .Auckland post office. Mr. D. R. Smith was in charge of the van, and with him were Messrs S. H. Dunstan and H. McDonnell. Speaking to a Star reporter, Mr. Dunstan explained how he and his mates escaped. At the time the engine ran into the slip, the postal officials were resting. Mr. Dunstan was lying on a bench and his two companions were on the floor. At the first Impact, hampers, bags and the pigeon holes (sorting cases) came down on the men on the floor with a crash, and Mr. Dunstan was hurled from his bench against the hampers. The sensation inside the van was just as though it was rolling over a bank—a most weird feeling—although, as a matter of fact, it never turned over. As soon as the vau became stationary, the three officials rushed to the door, got out, and the first person they met was the driver of the engine, who said he could not get the fireman out of the cab. The fireman could be heard screaming with pain, and the would-be rescuers made frantic efforts to get at him, but without success. They rushed along the cab of the engine, but were driven back by escaping steam, which frustrated all attempts at rescue.

FIREMAN’S INJURIES. They got back to their own van to tfy another way, and they found, to their joy, that the unfortunate fireman had managed to crawl out of the cab, over a frosty bank of earth and through a smashed door into the mail van. Screaming with pain, he was in terrible agony, and implored the men to pull off his clothing. He was terribly scalded about the head, which was even then steaming, and it was a marvel he lived to get out. An attempt to pull off his trousers caused him awful pain, and his screams were heart-rending. The next man assisted out of the wreckage was Mr. Mear, who was pulled through a broken window of one of the carriages. He was actually on fire when he got out. For a long while it was impossible to get near the window through which he was eventually pulled out, owing to the gas-container under the carriage having caught alight. Mr. Wear’s overcoat was well alight, and in proof of the extent which this victim must have been burned, Mr. Dunstan showed the Star reporter a book taken from the man’s overcoat pocket, ail the edge of it being badly charred. APPALLING INJURIES. Mr. Mear’s injuries were appalling. His face was one indistinguishable mass of red flesh, and his hands were, in a frightful state, the skin hanging from the tips in raw strips. His first words were, “Give us a cigarette!” Mr. Dunstan’s mate lit one, and as the poor fellow was quite incapable of. holding it himself, thepostal official held it in the victim’s mouth. This seemed to give the man some, relief. Mr. Jones, of Hamilton, then came along with some spirits which were much needed as a restorative for the injured passengers, and Mr. Cohen, of the “Scandal” Dramatic Company, went through the whole of the firstclass carriages and the sleepers hunting up restoratives, and sheets to bind up the injured. Fortunately he

managed to rake up fourteen bottles of whisky and brandy, and this came I in very handy for the morning was bitterly cold, and many of the victims were in a state of utter collapse NO RESCUE GEAR. Those at work in getting the victims out of the telescoped carriages were much handicapped by the ab- . sence of any implements that could be used to force an entrance into the carriages. There was also an absence of light, except, in the postal van, and all the wounded were taken along to it in order to take advantage of the light. HOW THE VAN ESCAPED. “You cannot imagine how lucky we were,” said Mr. Dunstan, telling of the escape of his companions and himself. “The front wheels of the van were forced through the floor, and the side caved in. One of my companions got a cut on the arm, anil I got hit on the small of the back when thrown against the hampers, but beyond that we got cjff scot-free." Asked how he accounted for the fact that the van got off so lightly, when the very next carriages were so terribly mangled, Mr. Dunstan said the van had just got round the corner that has been mentioned in the reports as the spot where the engine driver got his first view of the slip on the line, when it was thrown off the line, and it lay along the high bank on the left-hand side of the rails. On the other hand, the corner of the carriages next to the van struck the bank at the bend, was thus checked, and the two following carriages were thrown up against the end of each other, and the impact of the rest of the train simply telescoped them. WOMAN SLEPT THROUGH IT ALL. As an instance of the difference between the terrible havoc wrought in the front of the train and the ini munity even from shock at the rear end of the train, Mr. Duns/an mentioned that some of the first-class passengers did not realise the extern of the calamity for a long while, an.: one woman actually slept right on ftseven o’clock, although the smash occurred ten minutes before six o’clock.