THE BRAYBROOK DISASTER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9136, 4 May 1908, Page 7

THE BRAYBROOK DISASTER.

DRIVER MILBURN. HIS TORTURES AND HIS NIGHTMARES. Melbourne, April 22. In a little wooden, single-fronted . cottage an South Kensington, overlooking the wastes of the West Melbourne swamp, there are moving pictures of human suffering that must excite profound pity. The cottage is named “Ethel May,’’ and it is the house of Robert Milburu, the driver first engine on the Bendigo train—the locomotive that worked all ttie slaughter in connection with the awful collision at JBraybrook Junction on Easter Monday night. In the darkness of Tuesday morning when willing hands were feverishly pulling out the mangled dead from between the Sunshine platforms, Milburu was found crouching in the cab of his engine, broken in nerve and physically helpless. “No,” he said, in reply to 'the doctor, who had inquired whether he was hurt; “but it would have been much better if I had been killed.” He wai led home, quivering in body and limb, and with benumbed senses. He was bruised about the loins, but of physical suffering, apart from his acute mental anguish, lie had none. Throughout Tuesday the unfortunate man knew neither ease nor rest. His wife and members of his family tried to assuage his suffering, but in vain. He walked the floor rapidly and ceaselessly, as if relief from thought wore only to be obtained in physical action. Every now and then, as his distraught mind conjured up some awful moment in its maddening experience, he clutched his hands and groaned, “My God; my God!” It was prayer—prayer to the hl- - to put back His universe and give him yesterday. To-day, after a bad night, he grew calmer, but on the advice of his doctor no one was allowed to speak with him about the disaster, representatives of the Railway Department being refused interviews, like everybody else. Daring intervals, Milburn was able to communicate to his friends the particular phase of the tragedy that was racking his mind. It was not the agonies of the collision. His waking thoughts and the fiendish wraiths of his dreams all had relation to the moments he lived at half-past ten o’clock on Monday night, immediately before his massive 90-ton engine crashed against the guard’s van of the train from Ballarat. He alone, of all the hundreds who were in the vicinity of the station at that Lour, saw the hastening seconds before the terrible impact, and. he alone realised beforehand the frightful consequences. He saw the glimmering of the tall lights of the Ballarat train ahead; he saw the train itself, he saw the people upon the station platform; and he knew that the roaring mechanical monster on which he rode was wildly careering onwards to the shock like a taaad thing, entirely beyond his control. The changing mental pictures that swept before his eyes all repeated themselves many hours after the accident, as they appeared with unnerving realism. When Milburn attempted to sensations of these few moments, mind and speech failed him.

Milburu is a strong, sturdy man, who has hitherto been credited with the possession of an iron nerve. He is 56 years of age, and has a wife and seven children, most of them grown up. He has been in the service of the railway department for 33 years, and for several years has been given charge of work requiring the greatest experience, skill, and nerve. He has gbeen driving heavy engines that run express. Those who undertake this task are technically known in the service as “ Hell-fire-Jacks, ” not because of any recklessness, but because of the daring speeds at which they are compelled to travel. Milburu a member of a well-known Bendigo family, and has a reputation for sobriety. He is the eldest son of the late Robert Milburn, who for years was proprietor of the Bendigo Coffee Palace, and has a large family of well-known sons, some of whom are still resident in the Bendigo district. It is interesting to note the' view taken of the disaster by Milburn’s grown up sons and friends. They claim that no driver in the service could'have averted the calamity had they been in the unfortunate driver’s place. ‘‘He was skilful and careful,” they say; “and what any man could do with an engine he could do.” “Several things need explanation,” said one. “Why was not ‘one five,’ or the warning signal, set at Sydenham, to caution him to slow down, as there was a train at Sunshine platform?” RIYAIj UNDERTAKERS’ UNSEEMLY PRACTICES. One of the most unpleasant features in connection with the removal off} the bodies of the victims from Spencer Street, either to their homes or to the morgue, was the element of competition infused by certain undertakers into the gueraonm fi buisness, Undeertakers and their assistants were in readiness at the station to take charge o ft-he remains of the victims, according to the instrcutions" given by relatives or friends who had identified them. Misunderstandings arose at times, and humiliating—not to say ghouljgth argument ensued between several undertakers or their representatives as to their proprietary rights to certain corpses. An instance came under notice where one undertaker went so far as to ring up another and demand the immediate return of a body to the morgue, whence he asserted it had been wrongfully taken by his rival iu business, and this is said not to be an isolated instance of such procedure being adopted. FOUND AT THE MORGUE. Melbourne, April 32. The relatives of a railway employee res Ming at Newport were surprised that he did not return home on Easter Monday night. They had been ' informed that ho had been called upon to work at the Newport shops on Easter Monday, and were greatly puzzled at his unusual absence. At last his wife, who was nearly distracted, told her sou to .visit the morgue, although she could not believe that her husband could be in any way aassociated with_ the railway accident. The son, with a companion, entered the morgue, and almost the fix-st object his eyes rested upon was the body of his father.