THE LOCOMOTIVE EXPLOSION.

Evening Star, Issue 4131, 24 May 1876, Page 4

THE LOCOMOTIVE EXPLOSION.

The engine belonging to the contractors, Messrs Morrison and Cormack, arrived at scene of the accident at eight o’clock, ftndAt once became attached to the waggons Standing on the line. This operation had Scarcely been performed, when the engine, from some cause at present unexplained, blew up. At the time of the accident, the Clerk of Works, Mr Alexander Taylor, was in the act of giving orders to the driver of the engine, and was about to start tee train when the explosion took place. Mitchell (the driver) and Orr (the stoker) were standing on the engine, with Mr Taylor alongside. 'Four or five other persons were also m close proximity to the scene of accident. One piece of iron, weighing some 50lt>, was hurled a distance of 295 yards, and several other pieces were scattered about in all directions. The safety valve, strange to say, was tied down by a thick piece of rope* the cause of which will, we trust, be duly elicited at the official inquiry. The body of the, unfortunate Mr Taylor was carried a distance of thirty yards, and .when discovered it was found that he had been-lifted clean out of his boots, which .were found l id', close proximity to the engine. A few seconds previous! to the accident, a man living in a canvas tent iwithin six yards of the engine was standing alongside the unfortunate deceased (Mr Taylor), and, at his request, went into the tent to prepare him a'cup of tea previously to the starting of the train. Had it not been for this strange coincidence, this individual would certainly "have met the same fate As it was, a ; heavy bar of iron was hurled through the canvas of the tent, and passed within'a couple of inches of his head. The *N. O. Times * entered into more minute particulars than the ‘ Mail. ’ Its reporter, on arriving at the scene, found that the engine, with three loaded trucks, had been standing at tee time of the explosion on the Waiareka line, about twenty or thirty yards from its junction with the main line. A small part of the locomotive—a coal-bunk and wheels remained on the line, but the whole of the remaining parts were scattered in all directions. Bolts and small pieces of the machinery were lying around over a radius of hundreds of yards. A great piece - the greater part —of the steam chest, that must have, weighed fully a ton, was lying thirty yards away from the scene of the explosion, - and one of tee driving bars at a distance of no less than 290 yards. The spots at which those injured were picked up were pointed .out to us, and in two instances great pools of blood only too plainly cold how severe were tee injuries sustained. An eye witness informed us that when the boiler burst he saw several bodies hurled into the air in the cloud of steam, and the force with which they were propelled may he inferred from the fact that the deceased Mr Taylor was thrown between twenty and thirty yards, clean over the space intervening between the two lines, over the fence on to the metals of the main line, his head coming into contact with the latter, and his brains being driven through his mouth. His boots were blown off his feet, and were picked up some yards away, and the hat which he wore had one side cut off. Orr, who only that morning went to work in the contractors’ employ as fireman of the engine, was picked up near the rails of the branch line, and Mr Dngald Mitchell, the enginedriver, some distance further off. The former had two lacerated wounds in the thigh, and had also sustained a fracture of the skull. The other men were only slightly injured. Two of the latter are William Johnson and Alfred Robmson, laborers, A man named Edward Kennedy is also seriously hurt, haring contused wounds all over his body. Mr Colin Campbell, the third patient, is, we are glad to find, only slightly injured, being cut about the face. Orr, Mitchell, Kennedy, and Campbell are all married men with families, but the deceased, Taylor, was unmarried. Mitchell leaves a wife and four children.

. ■ [By Telegbaph.] The inquest- on Dugalcl Mitchell and Alexander Taylor commenced at 1 p.m, yesterday. The jury went out by special train to the scene of the accident, and then adjourned to the hospital to take the evidence of Colin Campbell and E. Kennedy, two other sufferers. The facts disclosed so far add nothing to show the cause of the accident There is no doubt that it was caused by the safety valve being tied down, and is generally supposed that Mitchell, the driver, did it. The inquest is still being held and likely to last through to-morrow. John Orr, the stoker, lies in a very precarious position, and it is a great chance if he recovers. Mitchell’s life was not insured.