A RUNAWAY TRAIN.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 May 1919, Page 3

A RUNAWAY TRAIN.

FURTHER DETAILS

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TAIIIAPE, May 15. The scene of the crash reminds one of a huge pile of refuse and timber at a forsaken sawmill, specked here and there with protruding wheels and pieces of iron work. The force to cause such a dual heaping and scattering is reflected in the hugeness of the pile and the distance the wreckage is thrown. Pieces of iron two inches in diameter were hurled seventy yards along the line Serious as the smqsh is, it might have proved inculably worse. It appears that Guard Batty had received instructions to proceed ahead of .the express and had passed the tablet to the engine-driver, wnen he heard the Ngarukehu station telephone persistently ringing. No attendants being there, he answered and received instructions not to proceed, as his train might delay' the express. By this piece of good fortune, a greater catastrophe was averted as the oncoming express would undoubtedly have dashed into the mass of wreckage which consisted of at leasttwenty trucks. Engine-driver AValsh suffered a terrible death, being pinned down where a jet of escaping steam played upon him.

When rescued he was still conscious. Though scalded past hope of recovery lie behaved with admirable bravery and stoicism, merely asking to be given a 1 stimulant. The inquest was adjourned *or a week. Later accounts from the main trunk railway accident state that Guard Battyapplied the Westinghouse brake, but apparently it failed to respond apd by the time Ngaurukelui crossing station was readied the train had gathered a speed equal to about 100 miles an hour. The signaller at the la'ttev station concluded the train had run away by the excessive speed at which it was travelling, and the fact that the driver was causing a peculiar whistle to,sound, as if he was in distress. Warnings were j conequently flashed along to Mataroa j and Taihape. The end of the train, however, came at » curve about five miles down from Gardiner’s crossing, when the engine shot off the track. The impact was terrific with the great pressure behind, and ocular demonstration is afforded at the scene of the disaster, where the wreckag is piled up to a great mass and hundreds of tons of coal and timber were flung over the engine for a distance of three or four chains.

The wreckage is terrible, and simply beggars description. When Guard Baity recovered from the shock following on the impact, lie rushed to the assistance of Driver Walsh and Fireman McKenna. The latter escaped miraculously, though he has been suffering intense agony from burns caused by steam and boiling water. Driver Walsh had fared worse and was still pinned up in the overturned engine, and he was not released until a couple of hours afterwards, when a special train from Taihape had arrived with medical aid, notice of the disaster having been sent through to there aiu? to Ohakune bv the porter at Ngaurakebu. The Traffic Manager at Ohakune, also organised a relief train, and it arrived about midnight, with a gang of men who cut a track over the bank for the express passengers, who reached the block several hours later, and were transhipped to a train waiting, on the other side of the wreckage.

The injured men were conveyed back to Taihape. Local trains to and from Taihape have been suspended on that section for several days, hut the express will run as usual, passengers being obliged to tranship. It is estimated that the damage can hardly be covered by £I2OO.