Rail-Smash Inferno

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 485, 15 October 1928, Page 9

Rail-Smash Inferno

VICTIMS TRAPPED IN BLAZING TRAIN

Collision in Gloucestershire

(United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association)

(United Service)

A--! . LONDON, Saturday. CHOCKING railway collision occurred early yesterday morning at Charfield, Gloucestershire, between an express mail train and a London, Midland and Scottish goods tram. Three coaches of the mail train were telescoped and caught fire, and instantly became an inferno. Of the 14 dead, nine bodies have been recovered and 26 injured passengers are in hospital.

After five hours’ examination of the remains of victims of the smash, many of which are almost charred to ashes, doctors are satisfied that there are 14 dead. The doctors have concluded that hve bodies are of men and five of women. Whether the remainder were men or women It is impossible to discover. Only two have been positively identified. The disaster occurred at 5 a.m. in a dense fog. The goods train, which was empty, was being backed into a siding, and the mail train struck it head on. The driver of the express jumped clear, but the fireman and the engineman of the goods train are still imprisoned in the wreckage. The collision occurred under a bridge which carries a road over the railway close to the Charfield station. The mail train caught the goods train with a crash which awakened sleepers for two miles around. PETROL FEEDS FIRE The express capsized on the opposite line, on which a second goods train was passing. Fire broke out immediately amid the piled-up wreckage. The screams of women and children were mingled with the roar of escaping steam from the engines. One of the goods trains contained a petrol wagon, which was smashed and sent up a huge blaze. The bridge over the line was so burned that it has been declared unsafe. Four coaches in the mail train were completely burned before the fire was extinguished. The debris was still smouldering and occasionally bursting into flames 12 hours after the crash. Hundreds of villagers rushed to the scene from their beds, but they had the awful experience of having to stand idly by listening to the cries of

the victims and unable to approach them until the firemen had found water. “It was like a great bonfire,” said a spectator. “We did not know where to start. The carriages were like ovens. A little girl who had both her legs broken was the bravest one I saw.” One man dashed from a blazing coach, then cried: “I have lost my luggage.” He ran back and was not seen again. A Post Office sorter, who was a sliell-shoek victim of the war. lost his reason and had to be forcibly carried from the scene. LOSING BATTLE WITH FLAMES A terrible story was told by Mr. Louis Huntley, who last evening was still roaming among the ruins vainly seeking his sister. “I smashed a window and lowered my wife to safety,” he said. “Then I found my sister pinned down from her waist downwards, so that she could not move. “While I was trying to extricate her fire broke out in the next compartment. I threw the full weight of my body against the woodwork, but could not free her. “The flames crept nearer, inch by inch, until the partition of the compartment was ablaze. My sister was calling out ‘Save me! Get me out!' J went mad. Ten men could not have freed her. “I fought on until I smashed my left, shoulder blade, rendering my arm use less. My sister then cried: ‘Save yourself, Louis.’ “Then the flames swept over her. I fell. They picked me up aiid I was taken to Bristol with my wife. Then they brought me back here to identify a woman, but she was not my sister “ It has since been established that Mr. Huntley's sister, Mrs. Johnston,, was among the dead.