FRIGHT AT GREYMGUTH

Hokitika Guardian, 30 July 1918, Page 4

FRIGHT AT GREYMGUTH

TRAIN BRAKES SNAP

A mild sensation was caused at Grey mouth yesterday morning by the Blackball inward train overrunning the station some two hundred yards. It appears, says the Argus, that when the train had reached the point where the brakes are generally applied, the driver, Air. E. O’Donnell, carried out what was necessary, but was astonished to find no response from the brakes. He gave the necessary alarm promptly by whistling, but eventually the train was brought up opposite the Albion Hotel. .Some of the passengers became alarmed, thinking that the train would continue its career down the wharf, and several were successful in alighting | from the carriages. Some minor injuries wore sustained iu consequence, one passenger, Mr. Henry Mettrick of Blackball, suffering minor injuries to his face and hands, while another gentlemen fainted.’ For a time there was a mild panic among the passengers, who consisted of a number of school children. These, latter also took their chances bv dropping off the carriage platforms but no serious injury resulted. The general idea at the. time was -. . that frozen rails had something to do with the extraordinary occurrence, but it lias since been ascertained that the engine brake had snapped; Driver O’Donnell; is- deserving of. great praise of mind, in’acting as he did, and stopping the train with emergency brakes in such a short space, £