DEMENTED ENGINE DRIVER.

Shannon News, 18 August 1925, Page 1

DEMENTED ENGINE DRIVER.

AMIENS. RAILWAY SMASH RECONSTRUCTED. SPEED OF OVER 80 MILES AN HOUR. PARIS, August .14. It has been ascertained that the driver of the Amiens express is insane. He has been st might jacketed. It is suggested he was affected by the heat before he left Paris, which would account for the fact that he was occasionally doing over eighty miles an hour. It is stated that the engine was never derailed, but the tender was, hence the suggestion that the signalman may have operated the switch too late. Experts consider the derailing was duo to the tearing off of the twelve foot tongue of one of thb points, which was driven into the engine cinder box. This, before snapping, suddenly stopped the engine, causing the carriages to telescope as they met the huge resistance. A reconstruction of the accident shows that the first coach completely overturned back-' wards, the third was driven into the second, and the fifth mounted the roof of the fourth. The rest overl turned sideways. A smash occurred at St. Denis between a train from Lille and the Ctologtoe 'express. The impact '\vaa terrific and the former's guards' van smashed to matchwood, and two coaches overturned. One was killed and fifty injured.