SHOCKING DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 17 June 1930, Page 3

SHOCKING DISASTER

TRAIN HITS CAR SIX PERSONS KILLED FOUR NURSES, CAR & ENGINE DRIVERS

CHRISTCHURCH, June 10. Four nurses, the driver of a motor car, and an engine driver, were all ailed almost instantaneously when at '.23 o’clock this evening, the 5.10 p m workers’ train from Islington smashed into a five sea ter Government motor car at the Sock burn level crossing. The effect of the impact was that the engine, with six of the waggons, was derailed. The dead are as follows:

Matron Isabella Duncan Brand, aged about 40 years; Matron at, Templeton Farm Colony Branch of iSnnnvside Mental Hospital. Nurse Mary Cameron. Nurse Jane Field Palmer. Nurse Isabel Dorothy ; Hen soli.

All of the nurses belong to tlm Farm Colony. Three of the nurses were single, and were in their early

Mventies

Ralph Augustus Smith, aged 2') years; single; motor car driver employed by the Sunnyside Mental Hospital. Charles Waterloo Smith, aged 59 years : married : engine driver, Employed by the New Zealand Government Railways.

The fireman on the train was Frank ‘arson of 82 Ollivier’s Road, Christ--

hurch. He was thrown clear of th engine. Lie was taken immediately .-.o the hospital, suffering from scalds and shock.

The 'four nurses, a who had been spending a. dayts leave? in Christhurch, were returning with the driver in a five sea ter open Austin, carEvidently Ralph ■ Smith, who was travelling at about 20 miles an hour, saw the crossing keeper’s lamp too late, for lie swerved to the left in a 'nst attempt to avoid the engine. The car, however, was caught in the middle, and it was carried to the cattle stop, where it became caught mi the, wooden beams. There the car gave a sufficient resistance to lift the engine right off the rails and caused t to telescope six or seven of the waggons, plunging the whole into a i!od mass of wreckage across the rails and on the embankment. About, 20 yards further on, the engine buried itself in the grolind, with a hiss of escaping steam. I

In five minutefj the leading waggons were aflame. The four nurses and the driver were thrown out of the car on the far wide of the crossing, where all of them were badly mutilated. They all died within two minutes. . The engine driver was pinned under the locomotive and killed.

Riled up 20 feet into the air, the wreckage of the telescoped sheep trucks and waggons, under which the car was shapelessly held, caught fire rapidly, and showed the horror and tragedy of the accident.

The engine, which was travelling with the tender first, was almost comnlet.elv turned about, facing the way thft it, came. The wreckage of wood and iron '•i'! rr ed out over the far set of rails. Underneath was the car. twisted and torn and ripped, until it was hardly recognisable.

FIRE BRIGADE ARRIVE

FURTHER PARTICULARS

RESCUING THE DEAD

In the darkness it was jnjmiut >m"ossible to, distinguish tin?, trucks and half buried engine jumbled.,together in an unrecognisable heap, v T/Jie teJil.>r bad..beep poached at an-angle of almost 45 degrees from tin? .gtigipe; it-‘-elf, while .thoifcn.b had dug.jtgplf into a small embaJrkmcnt, to a, a depth, of ■■ lmnt five feet, with the drivcuvcaiigbt between the i; boiler and the.sideiof the cab. • Mb : : .

Tn its uncontrollable raroor, the train had charged through a feiiKo and ' "'wknd over"'ffti outhouse ap'tlie rear nf the crossing keeper’s hut. Ti„. wreckage of the motor eouM he seen enmeshed in the wheels of the b’-r cnpilie.

Several personal arfmles of passengers remained in it. ierJnduig a rniant-

tv Hf women’s cloth in"

At 12.30 a.ni. (he body of the driver was recovered from the wrecked cab, in a crushed condition, and taken to

‘be niorgin

One explanation of the tragedy is 'bat a minute or two prior to.the ar- • i—a,l of the train which struck .the car a train from Christchurch, bound .for \sliburton, passed over the crossing; It is possible that the driver (if the ear saw the • crossing keeper’s signal but, mistook the green light for a signal that the line was clear, the Ashbiirtop train having just passed over.

The city firemen worked feverishly under Superintendent Warners’ diree-

tion to recover the engine driver’s | body. At length water was obtained I from the abattoir, and with this, tin fire was thoroughly extinguished.

Section of the car, steering wheel seats and pieces of its equipment wer strewn down Liu* whole length <>f lli track with the bodies over and anion; them:

c iich was the tangle and confusm that it was’ impossible to sepnrqt' M'liek ifi'oin truck. The whole lay u ine heaped mass to the right of tlm engine and behind it.

OKfim.E CAUSE OF ACCIDENT

CHRISTCHURCH, June 17. The scene of the accident present-

'd a terrible sight. Firemen were mounted on t.lie burning wreckage en-

leavorriip’j ty,.suppress the, flames suffi'•ieutly to qjj .w many willing workers offering*’to, ij'spue tfie body,.of driver initli, buried , beneath. ~,, Crowds wh’ill had gathered,by this Mine pressed jia on them wtyh,fliprbid itt-'ction, until finally a .ho.se, was

1 "rued Mi, Aha air in their direction to lisp-Tse them.

Wdeii. the poilce arrived, more, order was kept] .Six sheep truirkhaimmedia'oly he'diul 'he engine were telescoped and piled up on top of the,-ermine

-nd car. ’The wleckage caughtb alight from the fire of the engine and blazed fiercely, the woodwork of the trucks spreading the flames.The bodies were ‘‘kjiiicklv removed from the smouldering heap, being wit on stretchers on the side of the lire.