RUNAWAY TRAIN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1762, 8 December 1917, Page 1

RUNAWAY TRAIN.

FOUR SOLDIER'S KILLED AND FIFTY-FIVE HURT. CARRIAGES RUSH DOWN INCLINE. ■Early on Saturday morning (September 22nd) a troop train met with disaster at a camp in Yorkshire. The train, which was to convey Scottish soldiers to another part of the country, was standing in the camp siding, while the men were being entrained. No engine was, attached. From some unexplained cause the brakes were off, and the carriages, slowly at first, but later at a high speed, rushed unchecked down an incline. After a run of about four miles the train failed to negotiate a curve, the carriages were upset, and several of them smashed. Four men were killed, and fifty-five injured. The line on which the accident happened is known as the Camp Railway, and is a single track connecting the camp with a branch line of the North-Eastern Railway. Inquiries which were made among those present shortly after the acJ cident occurred show that at about four o’clock, before the break of | 7 day on Saturday, the ten coaches comprising the train stood in the camp siding for the purpose of taking on board a detachment of troops and conveying them to the special troop train.on the branch line at the station. RUNAWAY CARRIAGES. When the first section of the men, numbering, it is stated, about 150, had entered the first three coaches, the engineless (rain began to move, and as the lino from camp to station is on a falling gradiant, it was not long before considerable momentum was attained, A number of the alarmed soldiers leapt from the rocking runaway, and escaped for the most part with superficial injur-’ ies. After travelling for about four miles the train arrived at the section of the line where there are a curve and a level crossing, and here came a tragical check. The leading coach with its living freight broke its couplings, and bounded, away at a high speed’ into the gloom. Six of the coaches that followed were flung off the line and piled themselves up on either side in an extraordinary jumble. Two of -them fell athwart of each other, and became debris out of which the survivors who were able began to scramble. Doubtless many of the officers who were to have travelled on the train have congratulated themselves on a lucky escape, for the coach composed of .first-class compartments and reserved for officers was completely shattered, the woodwork being ripped off the bogey. The three carriages at the rear remained upright. They also were emptv. A PATHETIC INCIDENT. The first coach which went forward proceeded on its mad career until it reached the station. The camp line points were set for a buffer stop, and here the terrible adventure of the passengers in the first coach came to an abrupt end. Both buffer and vehicle suffered heavily as the result of the contact, as well as a signal post, which was carried away, and the men were much shaken, but the major casualties occurred in the smash higher up the line. Private Cameron’s fatal injury, was exceptionally sad. He had travelled in the first coach, and had, with his fellows, got away from the wrecked vehicle when it hit the buffer. In the excitement of the moment he failed, however, to notice that he was on the ordinary railway line, and did not hear the approach of the special train which was running through the station in order to allow the engine to change ends. He was knocked down and grievously, injured, and thus a new tragedy broke in upon the joy of the soldiers at their safe deliverance from peril. Of the work of rescue there can be nothing but praise. The great resources of the camp were instantly employed, and in a remarkably short time everything possible to alleviate suffering had been accomplished. . The names of the dead men are L.-Corp. Piper, Private John Green, Private Cameron, and Private David Muirhead. At the inquest, a captain of the Royal Engineers said the only-solution of the accident was that the hand-brakes had been tampered with. The Coroner suggested that some men might have done this for a lark, not realising the danger of it., A verdict of accidental death was returned.