"BLACK-CHRISTMAS."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1009, 27 December 1910, Page 5

"BLACK-CHRISTMAS."

*— — LONG STRING OF DISASTERS. TERRIBLE RAILWAY COLLISION IN YORKSHIRE. CROWDED TRAIN BURNT. A SCENE OF HORROR. By TelCEraph—Press Association— CopyrightLondon, December 25. A terrible railway disaster has occurred at Haves, in Yorkshire. The Midland express, bound for Glasgow, with 500 holiday-makers aboard, was running at GO miles an hour when it overtook two light engines going at twenty miles an hour. The engines had been assisting southward bound trains. The crowded express crashed on to the light engines with terrific impact, and carried them a hundred and fifty yards. The two locomotives drawing the express jumped tlie'metals, and, were ihrng over an embankment. A- fire started in the' restaurant car, and the train was soon ablaze, the carriages being quickly reduced to ashes, and only the ironwork left. The accident occurred in darkness in a wild, mountainous region in the heart of the Pennine chain, and the crowd and burning train presented a scene of the utmost horror, , The cries of the injured imprisoned in tho blazing carriages; tho roar of the escaping steam from the four overturned engines added to its terribleness. At least nine persons were killed, the bodies being mostly! unrecognisable. A young married couple were pinned among the debris, and saw' their > five-months-old infant burned to death before their- eyes. Tho couple themselves were saved. Owing to the number of tragedies during tho week tho Christmas of 1910 has been named "The Black Christmas." : FIREMEN'S MARVELLOUS ESCAPE. .'■ PATHETIC LAST MESSAGES. (Rec. December 2G, 9.15 p.m.) London, December 20. The fire which destroyed the Hawes train is attributed to an explosion of gas in a tank. A high .wind fanned the flames. ._ The rearmost carriages, by becoming uncoupled, were saved. ." The driver and fireman of tho express had marvellous escapes with minor injuries. , . . ' ' The rescuers were trying feverishly to relieve a medical student, when the .fife swept iip to where he was pinnedu The student thanked his would-be rescuers, and sent a message to his mother. The fire then 6ilenced his voico for ever.