HYDE RAILWAY DISASTER

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23968, 8 June 1943, Page 4

HYDE RAILWAY DISASTER

INJURED SHOW IMPROVEMENT

LINE NOW CLEAR FOR TRAFFIC (P.A.) DUNEDIN, June 7. Some of those injured in the railway disaster at- Hyde on Friday afternoon who were admitted to the Ranfurly Hospital were discharged to-day, and there are now 12 patients remaining in this hospital out of the original 32. There has been a steady improvement in the condition of these patients. and also of those at the Dunedin Hospital. Both Mrs Molly Maskell and Mr C. R. Crutchley, both of whom were earlier reported to be serious cases, have .shown marked improvement. The engine of the wrecked train was replaced on the rails to-day and taken to the Rock and Pillar station, the nearest siding to the scene of the crash. Before the engine could be lifted back on the rails, however, the tender had to be cut off by severing the permanent couplings. The last carriage of the train was also replaced on the rails. The weather was fine to-day, enabling good progress to be made with repair work. The track has been restored piece by piece as the carriages were removed. The worst portions, the places where the engine and the last car left the rails, were being repaired to-night, and the line will be clear for the passage of a train leaving Dunedin at 7.52 a.m. to-morrow. Officials from the head office of the Railways Department in Wellington went by aeroplane to the scene on Saturday. They .were the assistantgeneral manager (Mr J. Sawers), the chief engineer (Mr G. J. Bertinshaw), the chief mechanical engineer (Mr Angus), and the locomotive engineer at Christchurch (Mr J. Binsted). Mr Sawers said that the personnel of the board of inquiry might be announced in a few days. Mr Sawers is a cousin by marriage of Mrs Mavis Sawers, of Alexandra, who was pinned in a wrecked carriage for six hours. Both the driver, Mr J. Corcoran, and the fireman, Mr G. G. Hollow, are making satisfactory progress, RAILWAY ACCIDENTS IN N.Z. PREVIOUS SERIOUS MISHAPS The only New Zealand railway tragedy in the last 20 years comparable with the Hyde disaster involved an Auckland-Wellington express near Kakahi, between Ongarue and Taumarunui, on July 6, 1923. The accident happened early in the morning when the train ran into a slip, and 17 persons were killed or died of injuries. The most recent mishap to a passenger train occurred when the northbound Limited express left the rails about a quarter of a mile south of the Mercer station on October 28, 1940. The driver and fireman were killed and 10 passengers were injured. The derailment of the engine luckily snapped the coupling pin between it and the first carriage, otherwise the death roll would have been heavy.

Seven people were killed on March 26, 1938, when an excursion train was derailed at Ratana, near Wanganui. More than 40 people were injured. The engine and the first carriage left the rails on a bend and ploughed into a cutting. The next three carriages continued round the bend beside the engine, the front left-hand corners of the second and third carriages being smashed against the rear right corner of the first carriage.

In the early morning of August 30, 1936, an Auckland-Wellington express ran into a slip near Paraparaumu. The engine rolled down an embankment, the first carriage was smashed, and four others were derailed. Five people were injured, of whom one subsequently died.