FURTHER DETAILS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 39, 9 November 1918, Page 7

FURTHER DETAILS

By Telegraph-Press Association. „. ' . Wangamii, November 8. ihe Mam .Trunk accident occurred during heavy rain. The train was travelling at a lair-rate of speed. Without warninif the -whole side of a hill slipped ™?Z engine-driver promptly applied the. brake, but the Lin dashed into tl.e failing earth. Passengers were tlirowr. violently in all directions. A mortuary van containing the body of ■Mr.- iait,-ar. engine-driver, of Ohnfcune, who died of influenza, was next to the .engine. J he postal car was next, and u was smashed to matchwood. A secondclass swoking car was next the telescoped postal van. The fourth vehicle, a eecond-ciass carriage, was also telescoped. •i-ii' :, j M * , that not-more were . .WiSP.-',',;™ pxpress"iyas'fiiUbf passen- . tfers.' Jhe injured"man who died is be-' hevedto be Mr.'H: Welch. ,, Those slightly liijJreo include Mr. H. J. Prater of and Mr. E. P. Pennington of Wellington-. ■ ■ -.' iiy Telegraph-Press Association mi ~ ~ Tafhape, ;• November 8. ihe-niail-officers-killed are believed to oe Jack Williams and a man named Martin, both recently, on duty at Aucklnnd. Jne man it) years of age was Mr. Welch u J iV vas tr i lTellill & '» Fwnkton. to Hustings. Michael Kendall, was found wandering on the line, injured and delirious, and was taken to hosnital Amongst the- soruruely injured are William Burrows, of. Wellington, broken leg; W. J. Johnston, of Wangamii broken jaw; U. .Jl'Cabe. of A'ew Plymouth, broken leg; Mrs. A. Carter, of Castlecliif, seriously injured.' "' .' .-The mails and parcels are broken and the contents, .badly mixed, much being .still;lost in (he debris. -The agents-are busy digging it out. Traffic north has been suspended ex.cepting the express both wave. Passengers, mails, and luggage aw oetnir. transferred. ...'lntending, passengers are advised to carry very little It is believed . that the Department will lay a deviation line round the mass of fallen earth. . . . Passengers tell most startling stories of, .hair-breadth escapes. After' the engine crashed into, Iho - mass of fallen earth;..trees, and rock,' pandemonium reigned. If the mortuary ear next the' engine had not acted as a buffer the .results would have proved much moro serious. Both cars were crushed to pieces. Women and children were rescued through a broken window, and a man hail to lie. extricated with an axe. Derbridge, the engine-driver, and the fireman (Jamie-son) were only a. little bruised. Those in hospital appear (o be progressing favourably. Ganss of 'men are working alternately day' and night cutting'a road through the slip, and there is . a prospect of the line" being clear by Monday. , -night. A PASSENGER'S STORY, MIRACULOUS ESCAPES. A passenger on the wrecked train gavo a . Dominion reporter the following interesting elory of the disaster:— The'- smash occurred at 6.20 in the morning. The- scene of the disaster iS about two miles north of Mataroa, and about nine miles north of Taihape. At the time we were travelling thro'ueh undulating country on a slight downgrade, and we seemed to be going at a. fairly high rate of speed. It was not al all the- kind of place where a. layman would expect to hear of a slip, but.it was here it occurred. 'The first we knew, of the trouble was when we were thrown forward out of oiir seats and then back again. There was a crash," and then a sudden stop. Tlio guard ordered all hands out, saying that there had been nn accident. We found that what seemed to bo about (tn aero of easy-sloping hillside had slid down on to the lino. About three-qimr-Ipi's of the engine had buried itself in the slip. The next vehicle was an improvised mortuary van, which was wrecked and «Jiofc up on tho top of the slip. ToHowing this was (he mail van, and this was smashed to matchwood. Tho first passenger car, a second-class emoker, was driven through the mail van. Tho second passenger car ran through tho back portion of tlio smoker, broke its couplings and ran off the line into a tree stump. The Work of Rescue. : The work of rescue began immediately. Both men on the engine had escaped, but no sign could be found of tho two mail agents. Injured people were lying about the two first passenger cars, and -dicso were .it once attended to. 'Guard Glasgow directed tho rescue work, and it was ..owing to his .coolness, mid forethought that the work went on as well as it did. Among tho passengers were several soldiers skilled in ambulance work, and they rendered first aid. 'Mrs. 3fny, of Richmond, and Nurse Martin, of Mangatainoka, also did excellent work. •Another Slip Occurs, Shortly after the. rescue work started another Blip occurred. A cry.of alarm was-raised; and the foil appeared to be foniiri'e down where the people were

working, but fortunately it diverted itself before it reached' the ground. A rescue (rain arrived at the southern side of the slip, nbout twenty minutes after the accident, and a doctor and hvo nurses were' soon on the scene. The work was exceedingly laborious. At fii-st some of the injured were carried a , long way round the end of the- tram, but an 'old gentleman speeded up Hie work by hilt ins on the idea of piiehiupt back the standing cars and taking thp patients through tho opening. All sorts of things were used os stretchers-doors off Iho cars, blankets, and cushions, and so on. Injured Man Nearly Overlooked,. _ It was not until about three hours after the , accident that the bodies of tho mnil agents were recovered. About tins time, one of tho passengers was found under tho debris. He was rather badly injured. He could not bo seen, and could not wake himself heard, and it mis only when a train crew was working on the wreckage that ho was discovered. Altogether there were soyen severely injured. Then there were about a dozen less severely injured who were what might be called walking canes. Some of the Narrow Escapes. ' While the' disaster was bad enough -it was little.short of a miracle that all the people in the leading cars wero not killed. '. . • . ' . . There wero many narrow escapes. A woman with a young baby, who was travelling in the second passenger car, wa* hurled from one seat to another. The'window near her-was broken, and this enabled her. to'pass the- baby through. Both' were unscathed. IVo men in the same car were smothered up to their shoulders in wreckage, and they also got out without, a scratch. ' A raa.ii, his -wife, and daughter were thrown from end to end of the car, but were not injured. Mr. M'Callum, a brother of the.membw for Wairau, was riding in the smoker, and was-thrown from the back end of the-, "smoker" right up to the mail van, and escaped with a mack eye. Two soldiers had similar .narrow as■capes. , . . Two'conscientious objectors, who were travelling under escort, received a few face bruises. They afterwards distinguished themselves by doing particularly fine work in assisting the injured.

Two pet rabbits which were in a cage in the "smoker" were uninjured. They were taken out after the wreck in, quite good order. The Mails. The mails, which included an outward Christmas.mail for soldiers, were strewn all over the scene, and it took a considerable time to collect the letters and parcels again. The rescue train was dispatched \o Taihape at about 8.30, and then a relief train- for the passengers came along. When this relief train was being loaded up Bomeono turned up from somewhere with a. godsend \in the form of a large quantity of hot\ tea. ■ A Remarkable Accident. It is reckoned that the slip commenced when the' train wan within a few seconds of the place where the fall struck the line. It is'said that the fireman saw it'falling nnd called to the. engine-driver, who aonlied the hrako. About half an hour before the accident another train had gone through and everything was as usual.. an officlalltatement ' EXTENT OF THE ACCIDENT. ' A statement concerning the accident was made, by the Minister of Railways (the Hon. W. H. Ilerries) in the House of Representatives yesterday . afternoon. The Minister said the. accident was not qnito so serious as the first report had indicated, but he regretted to say that it was sufficiently serious to eauso loss and suffering to some of members' fellow citizens. The express, which left Auckland for Wellington, at 7.10 -p.m. on Thursday, he continued, had run into a slip one and a half miles north of Mataroa, some eteht miles north of Taihape, about six. oclock that 'morning. ; The mail van, a second-class carriage, and a van had been telescoped, two postal employees in the mail van had been killed, seven passengers had bora injured, two. of .them,.elderly men, seriously, and one of the latter had. died .on the way io.the-l'aihape Hospital. The otherjn-' jiired- passengers, had reached■ Taihape safely, and the bodies of the two postal employees had been recovered from the wreckage. 'Unfortunately tho names of the- killed and injured were not available, great difficulty having been experienced in details owing to the serious interruption of the telegraph service.

The slip, continued the Minister, was over four chains in width, and, being full of trees, and boulders and other material, difficult to handle, could not be cleared for at least a week. Owing to the 'position of the slip there was no clinnce of liinkinsr a deviation, so that for the time being passengers would have to be transhipped. It was quite clear that the mishap had been the. result of pure accident, the slip beiiu; in iiicli n position that it was -impossible for those in charge of the train to have Iseen the slip before they were right into it, aud he was quite sattefiedythat a.s fur as the ■Railway Department was concerned no blame was attachable to anyone. The 'Department, he added, had "been very fortunate in Ihe men it had had in charge 'of the difficult, piece of line between Frnnkton and Marton. Slips dur-. ins: the past winter had been constantly occurring, and it was only by the cease-less-vigilance, of the men concerned that rerious accidents had been prevented. The Railway Department and the country at large were certainly to be congratulated on the fact that railway accidents had been few and far between.

Later in the si Wins' Dr. H T. J. Thneker, Christchurch "Ea.?t. gart notice of'hie intention to ask the' Minister of Railways if it was usual for- trolleymen to precede exnra-.- trajns on dangerous sections of the line;

TO-DAY'S TBAIN ARRANGEMENTS. To allow of passengers transhipping at the slip in daylight, Mid Railway Depart> ment. announces that to-day's Alain Trunk train will leave Wellington at 11 am instead of J2.45 p.m.