RAILWAY TRAGEDY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 178, 30 July 1932, Page 10

RAILWAY TRAGEDY

MAN TRAPPED BY LEG ARMY MAN’S SURGICAL AID. USE OF SHARP PEN-KNIFE. LONDON, June 24. Four persons lost their lives in a railway accident at Great Bridgeford, on the main Stafford-Crewe lino on June 17—three men and one woman — and a number of passengers sustained injuries. The 7.23 p.m. express from Crewe to Birmingham had passed through Great Bridgeford station and proceeded a distance of 200 yards when the engine jumped the metals and ploughed its way into the embankment. The train of four coaches was completely wrecked, the first and second coaches being smashed to matchwood. The debris was scattered over all four sets of metals on the permanent way, completely blocking the main line. Doctors, nurses and railway officials were rushed from Stafford, 2J miles away, and the injured were taken as speedily as possible to the Stafford General Infirmary. The driver of the train, James Voss, of Stafford, was gravely hurt, but the fireman managed to jump clear. It is suggested that, tho accident was caused by the expansion of the metals owing to the great heat. A splendid effort to save the life of Mr. James McLeay, whose wife was also killed in the smash, was made by Lieutenant-Colonel J. Sandeman Allen, M.P., who started to amputate his leg with a penknife. Colonel Allen, who is known to many New Zealanders as a past-chairman of the Council of the Royal Empire Society, said afterwards: —“I was in the Euston to Birkenhead express which was held up by the smash. It got out to see what help I could give and saw an injured man hanging from the top of the wreckage. His leg was trapped, and he was hanging with one hand on tho roof of the carriage and the other on a ladder which had been pushed up to him. Amputation Begun With Knife. ”1 could see no doctors about at the moment, and it was obvious that the man’s leg would have to be amputated and also that unless something was done quickly he would die. 1 got a tourniquet round the injured limb and, having a brand-new and very sharp pen-knife in my pocket, began the amputation. I had just started, when to my relief, a doctor arrived and the man was handed to his charge.” Colonel Allen stated that once during the war one of his men had an arm practically blown off, and on that occasion he carried out an amputation on the field. Mr. McLeay was taken to Stafford Infirmary, where his injuries proved fatal, despite Colonel Alien’s prompt effort. At the time of the smash, Mrs. McLeay was nursing her three-months-old baby, who escaped injury and is now being cared for by a resident near the accident. Mr. McLeay, an ex-in-spector of postmen, had received the Imperial Medal for his services. He retired only two months ago. and had left Inverness with his wife and child for a holiday in Staffordshire. After evidence of identification had been given at the inquest, which was adjourned, the coroner referred to a letter which he had received from Colonel Allen. The latter wrote: — “May I, as a public man, ask that my

action in starting to operate upon Mr. McLeay, although not a qualified medical man, be inquired into at your Court so that any breath of suspicion that I contributed to the death of this unfortunate man may be either confirmed or completely rejected.” Tribute by the Coroner. The coroner said that although Colonel Allen had offered to be present at the inquest he (the coroner) had not thought it necessary. He was perfectly satisfied that Colonel Allen was justified in doing what he did, and thought that he ought to be complimented. He acted with, the greatest promptitude before any of the doctors arrived, and, finding the unfortunate man pinned like that, did all ho could in the matter. He would vcrtainly write to Colonel Allen to that, effect. After the Rev. Joseph Kilgour, Mrs. McLeay’s brother, had identified his sister and her husband, he said to the coroner: “May I say with regard to Colonel Allen that I feel he did what any man would have done under tho circumstances. I should be glad if you would thank him for me in the letter that you are writing to him.”