Terrible Railway Accident in England

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 88, 15 January 1891, Page 4

Terrible Railway Accident in England

La. Day, NoTeinber 14. A terrible disaster occurred on the Great Western liailway, at Norton Fitztrarren, near Taunton, in the early morning of November 1 1, when n Bpecitii train; conveying passengers ex Norham Castle, f»oin Plymouth to London, collided with a good.-) train otaD,a)Cjf[ on the line. The passenger truin l«ffc Plymouth shortly before rtiidaight ou the llth, and reached I?optOii dbout tvf <> o'clock in the murniag. It was* pitch dark, and the rain «ra» coming down smartly. The goods 'train was from Taunton to Exeter, Tint; in order to allow the down night .mail to pass, it was shunted ou to the lip-line at Norton. The night mail - which left Paddingtoa at 9 p.m., -passed safely, and before the goods .train could be moved on to the down line again the special eauie up. The -driver of the special, seeing the ' signals all right, was letting his train run through the station at about 50 .miles an hour, wheu it came into collision with the goods train; about 100 yards on the Taunton side of Norton. The signalman, George Bice, who had been in the employ of the " company for 38 years, had forgotten the good train, and gave tbe fcignal 1' line clear " to the special driver. The stoker of the goods train, seeing the special approaching, at. once apprehended the danger, but there was no time to give the alarm, aud the express was upon them in a second. .The.impact was terrible, five compartments being, telescoped outright. The force of the collisiou was so great that the tender of the passenger engine was forced through the first three .compartments <>f the carriage next -to it. - The carriage was smashed like matchwood, pieces lying iv the field at a distance of quite thirty yards from the sceuo of the accident. The men who were sitting iv the compartlneut next to the eugine must have •been killed instantaneously, for their "bodies were wedged into the side of . the carriage and mixed up with the debris. Those of the second and -third, compartments were frightfully injured, aud. several sucoumbed~afcer _, liugwriug in terrible agony for an hour or more. The goods train was .standing with the engine towards .Norton Fitzwarren, so that the two engines were twisted into all shapes after coming iv contact, aud the .trucks near the goods engine were ' thrown off the line. The horror of | -the situation ,vras heightened by the > ia'et that the splintered woodwork was ignited by the tire from the engine. The whole carriage was speedily in a : blaze, and six of its occupants perished miseiabiy by burning, being unable to extricate themselves from the wreckage. Help soou arrived, ..and strenuous efforts were made by the railway officials and others to rescue the passengers from th-e debris • wrecked carriages It was i .several hours before ail the passengers c, "Were . extricated. It was then found that leu were killed; Awhile eight were seriously and about a dozen slightly injured. ' I At the inquest a verdict of man- . wad returned against Kice, , .the sigualuiuu, who is 64 years of age, .-andj/aws receutly himself ruu over by <a train aud seriously injured. ] "i^^rar-nniTMrTi-mri i ■■■ i