TRAIN BREAKS APART

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 198, 7 September 1937, Page 9

TRAIN BREAKS APART

-PresB Association.)

Two Passengers Thrown To Track ACCIDENT AT STATI0N

(By Telegruph-

/ INVEBCABGILL, Last Night. The special express train from Christchurch by whieh visitors to the second Rugby football Test match returned to Invercargill last night parted in two, leaving six carriages attached to tlie engine and 12 uncoupled as it was ! conring alongsido the platform of the j railv/ay station at 10.56 o'clock, and I two passengers who were standing on the rear platform" of tho sixth carjriage wero thrown to the track. Neither was injured. The train was an unusual'.y long and heavy one consisting of 18 carriages, all of which were filled with passengers. While the train was coming alongside the platform tho emergency lever in the second carriage from the engine was pulled, and the j bralces were instautancously applied The shock was so severe that a set oi couplings broke and the train parted about six cars from the engine. The platforms were crowded with passengers preparing to leave the train, and when the break occurred two men wero thrown to the track. An inspection of tho train after the accident showed thai considerable damage had been done. The hook that linked the sixth and gevcnth cars had snapped in half with the strain, and tho iron stanchions on the sixth carriage had been torn away, not one being left standing. Two iron gates on eitker side of the platform had been ripped from their hinges. The iron framework on the seventh carriage platform was severely wrenched, and the slioclc of the sudden stop caused several windows to break and broken glass lay in carriages and on the track. A porcelain wash basin in one carriage was shattered and a waterpipa lay in fragipents on the floor. Kailway officials stated that the lever must have been pulled by some irresponsible person in the carriage. There was no apparent reason for the brakes to be applied.