FRIGHTFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 32, 15 October 1842, Page 127

FRIGHTFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

All Paris was thrown into agitation on Sunday night, May 8, by a dreadful accident which took place on the Versailles Left Bank Railroad, and killed and wounded 200 persons. The great waters played at Versailles on Sunday, and consequently there was a great crowd of persons returning by the half-past five train. There were seventeen or eighteen wagons, with two engines before and one behind. The velocity was excessive ; when between Bellevue and Meudon, the axletree of the first engine broke, and, stopping, the second ran over it, killing the stoker, and, breaking the first engine in pieces, spilt its fire on the ground. — Instantly six or seven wagons were broken in pieces, and the rest, running, over the live fire of the broken engines, burst into flames. It is the custom on the Left Bank Railroad for the doors of the wagons to be closed, without any possibility of opening them, except by keys kept . by the conductors. No conductors were forthcoming, and thus the inmates of three of the wagons were burned. The irapoß>ibility of identifying the calcined remains adds to the horror and uncertainty of the catastrophe. The next train which was coming up was stopped, and the passengers, getting out, hastened to the scene, and beheld a pyramid of cars, whilst men with poles and hooks were labouring to rescue the burning bodies. There was no possibility of getting water in any abundance on the height. It is worthy of remark that few, if any, English persons suffered on this occasion ; as strangers generally prefer going to Versailles by the railroad of the right bank of the river. It has been stated that the number of dead, including those in the hospitals and at their own homes, amount to at least 107. Among the sufferers is the French circumnavigator D'Unrille, with his wife and only son.