AN ENGINE’S DIVE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9852, 3 November 1924, Page 3

AN ENGINE’S DIVE

20 FEET INTO RAVICR

DRIVER’S DESPERATE LEAP

SYDNEY, Oct. 20. An engine, drawing a. train .of empty stock trucks, broke away with four waggons at Hawkesbury station early this morning, crashed into a buffer oifd and shattered it, and then dived 20 feet into' tho river, dragging the waggons down the bank. Tho driver made a desperate leap to safety, and escaped injury. The fireman (William Collins) was thrown out on to the rocks and lus aims were lacerated. He was taker, to the Royal North Shore H’csp.tal and his wounds dressed. The smash occurred at 3 a m. and alarming reports were immediately spread that a passenger train had been derailed and had fallen from the Hawkesbury Bridge, which ih about half a mile from the scene ol the accident. The train was not inov.ng at c fast pace, and the Department does not regard the smash as very serious. At the spot where the accident occurred, the line is high up above the river, and the* train was travelling on the down line. The t ele was low and the engine was partly submerged. A Traffic Department official stated that the collision did not cause any delay, the trains running to their usual time.