TRAIN JUMPS THE LINE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10281, 16 May 1919, Page 4

TRAIN JUMPS THE LINE

MA N TRUNK MISHAP

DftIVER KILLED AND FTRJ2MAW

INJURED,

The fcssd office of the Railway 1>«partment was advieed yesterday that a goods train had run off the line north of Mataroa the previous evening, and that the driver had met with, fatal injuries.

The train consisted of thirty-two wagons. It left Ohakuns at 5 p.m on Wednesday for Taihape, and at about 9 p.m., while going down a sharp decline between Ngarukehu and Mataroa it got out of control, leaped the rails, and shot over into a gully. Over thirty wagons piled on top of the engine.

. Driver Walsh, and Fireman McKenzie were taken to tho Taihape Hospital, where the former died at 3 a.m. The line is blocked. The only trains running are the expresses, and passengers by them have to tranship at the scene of the accident. Gangs of men are at work, but the line will remain blocked for some days. FURTHER DETAILS iiNGIXE-DRIVER'S TERRIBi.IfI DEATH.. Press Association. , 'i'AIHAPE, May 18: ' The scene of the crash reminds one of a huge pile of refuse timber at" a forsaken sawmill, spiked here and there with protruding wheels and' pieces ot ironwork. The force to cause such a 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 being hurled seventy-five yards away. Serious as the smash is, it-might Jiave p/trred incalculably worse. I ",''. ,■,",'. '"'_.' 5 .,"..",_... It appears that Guard Batty Had received instructions to proceed ahead of the express, and had passed the tablet to the engine-driver when, he heard the Ngarukehu station telephone persistently ringing. No attendant being there, he answered and received instructions not to proceed, as it might delay the express. . By this piece of good fortune a greater catastrophe: was' av.ertedjcas: thefoficoming express undoubtedly, wouldjha-ye dashed into the mass of' wreckage, which. consisted of at. least twenty trucks.

I Engine-driver Walsh suffered a terrible death, being pinned down where a jet of leaking steam played upon him. When rescued he was still conscious, though scalded beyond-all hope of recovery. He behaved with admirable bravery and stoicism, merely asking that he be" givei»>-» S&^ulaiL*i ,sri *'lt Thi, inquest-is-ae opened .to-day) ahti adjourned for a week.