DREADFUL RAILWAY COLLISION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 44, 21 February 1905, Page 4

DREADFUL RAILWAY COLLISION.

EXPRESS RUNS INTO A MAIL TRAIN

SCENES OF HORROR.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, January 20

"Something's always happening," was the naive remark I overheard m Fleetstreet yesterday. The speaker was studying the contents bills of the even- : in* papers, arid in the face of the headlines' there displayed his statement, . trite though it was. certainly expressed I: the situation. It was a, day of dis- ' asters, mishaps and moving incidents— i; •'horrors on horror's head accumulated." L A terrible railway smash in Yorkshire, 4i supposed attempt on the life of the ! Czar." whole skating parties submerged 1 and drowned, accidents to Sir Charles I Wyudhain and Baron do Rothschild — I ajichwas yesterday's eventful atory as t told in the evening bills. It is of the 1 railway disaster that I wish to tell you ; here! In its details the catastrophe ! which occurred on the Midland RaiL- '' way Company's main line was peculiarly distressing. *A mail train from Leeds to Sheffield, going at a slow pace, was overtaken by the Scotch express from Glasgow to London, travelling at fifty miles an hour. The trains collided ■Vfitfa tremendous violence, and both were telescoped and reduced- to a heap 'of blazing wreckage. The resulting scene was full of horror, ivery circumstance connected with the disaster seem to combine to aggravate the sufferings of the victims. The collision occurred at half-past three in the morning, when most of the passengers hi the two trains were asleep—ma-ny of them in night attire. The scene was a high embankment, down which the injured •had to be carried into fields covered with snow. A dense fog and a tenir psrature below freezing point added to their distress and to the difficulties of the rescuers. One of the wrecked engines lay across the track of the London express for Scotland, which \vas due to pass the -spot just at that ve.ry thpi; but the presence of riiind of a guard in la, neighbouring siding saved the Lon- | don express from, destruction. By plsLC- | ing a fog-signal on the line he gave the

driver timely warning, and the train from London, simply grazed the -wreckage, without receiving any damage to speak of. Another cause for thankfulness is the fact that neither of the wrecked trains was carrying many passengers. As it was, however, six people were killed, 011 the spot, another succumbed later to his injuries, and some fifteen passengers were injured, about half t-iie number very seriously.

It was terj-ible work getting the injured from beneath the debris. Iv one of the trains it wgs the more difficult and dangerous because of the fire which., continued to bum fiercely among the coaches. The dead were: placed on stretchers and removed to a field near at hand, and tjje wounded were also laid on stretchers and carried to fields near the railway. The task of carrying the injured dorvifn the embankment to the grass belsw was expeditiqusly, but gently. <k>ns, the men taking the greatest care not to cause the wounded passengers; unnecessary pain. Sonic of them were very badly hurt, ijr Robert Brough,, a wellknown London artist, was among those ■\yho were seriously burnt. A driver of the Puqyal Artillery, who was himself a passenger, appears to have rendered heroic service in. t*ie height of theT disaster, lie at once took the lead in extri eating the dead and injured from the burning wreckage, and was instrumental in saving a number of lives. Doctors, ambulance men. and volunteers all seem to have worked nobly in rescuing the injured.

English railways have been singularly free from serious accidents • during .the past six or seven years, ana it is seldom indeed that a collision so distressing as this one has t<) be recorded. England's huge network of railway systems is wonderfully well-organised, and the comparative immunity frqm danger; is a splendid tribute to the efficiency of the working. The cause of the accident in the present case has not yet been determined, the driver of the Scotch express gays that he -saw no. signal displayed to stop him. Hia first warning was the sight of the tail lamps of the mail train just ahead, and by that time it was too late to pull up According to the signalman's version again, that official sent for the fo<*-si<r-Wller as soon as the fog came on! ami the man arrived on the scene just as vie Scotch express fleyr past.' He had no tune to put down, the detonators wind, act as However, njuil the inquiry is held' j t j 3 imnogf ,c ;° H t! 'e responsibility for Ihe disaster. "< - y