RAILWAY DISASTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18973, 26 March 1924, Page 5

RAILWAY DISASTER

OSTEND EXPRESS IN COLLISION WRECKAGE TAKES FIRE A SHOCKING EPISODE. When travelling at 70 miles an hour, the Ostend express collided with a goods train as the result of a wrong signal. The wreckage caught fire and dead and dying were burned. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Copyright. PARIS, March 25. The international express from Ostend to Basle collided with a goods train at Bensdorf at night-time. Eight dead and ten injured have been reported so far. TRAVELLING AT 70 MILES AN HOUR. SIGNALMAN’S TERRIBLE ERROR Received March 25, 10.45 p.m. PARIS, March 25. The Ostend express was travelling at seventy miles per hour when it crashed into the goods train. Gas reservoirs in a waggon behind the engine exploded, adding to the horrors of the catastrophe, which it is believed was due to a signalman leaving the points open for the express though a goods trains was being shunted into the station. The night was clear. The driver saw the signals at “line clear.” so did not slacken speed. Three carriages were telescoped. They have not yet been lifted, so it is not known whether further dead lie beneath the wreckage. The burning of the dead and dying, who were pinned under the wreckage for several hours, was a shocking epi•vde. No British are known to be killed . injured.