FEARFUL DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 103, 22 April 1908, Page 2

FEARFUL DISASTER.

UNPARALLELED COLONIAL RAILWAY CALAMITY. CROWDED EXCURSION TRAINS IN COLLISION. OVER ONE HUNDRED KILLED AND INJURED. \ A HEARTRENDING SPECTACLE. (By Telegraph, Press AssodaUoii.-Copyrjght.)

TElilUiiLE IMPACT. CKOWDED CAHKUtiES SMASHED TO SPLLNTEKS. DEAD AMD WOUNDED EEAKEULLV MAM (.(LED. THE WiiIiOKAUE AFfliE. 11AM ¥ LWKISOXED VICTIMS IWASTED. SiIOCKLNCi SCENES OF C'AKNAGE. Melbourne, April 21. A dreadtul railway collision occurred late last night near Draybrook Junction, where the Bendigo and liallara; lines meet. A heavily-ladeli passenger train from Bendigo crashed into a train wliicli had just arrived from Ballarat. Twenty-seven persons were killed outright and about one hundred injured. It was the most appalling disaster in Victoria's railway history. The Bendigo train smashed into the Ballarat train with terrific force. The foremost carriages were smashed to matchwood "and wrecked.

The trains immediately caught, fire ami added to the horror of the scene. The line was strewn with wreckage and dead bodies.

Wounded women shrieked, and the cries of the injured weie heartrending, At half-past eleven a special train left Melbourne with a medical corps and equipment.

The fire brigade also sent, out detach ments to Braybrook, which is abou seven miles from town.

The collision occurred a little before 11 o'clock. The Ballarat train, which was running a little late, was just coming out of the station when the Bendigo train, which was drawn by two powerful engines, crashed into the rear of the moving Ballarat train., which was going so slowly that th e force of the impact was not lessened to any considerable extent.

Tlie guard's van at the l'car of tlit Ballarat train was splintered to pieces. The next ear, a second-class, was also smashed to atoms, and tlic next, which was a first-class, was telescoped. The cars were crowded with passengers, sonic of the people having to stand because the compartments were so full. The trains tool; fire, and then a liorrililo scene was witnessed. Dead and dying were imprisoned within the burning debris. They were practically i-oast-ed to death before tlicy eoukl lie extricated. When the relief train arrived at a Quarter past midnight, it found Die platform strewn with dead, and the wounded were lying all over the place. The shrieks of the affrighted passen-

gers when the trains collided, and screams of the women and children and tlie groans of strong men in agony were so dreadful that the hardest nerves gave way under the awful strain. One man lay groaning on the platform, moaning ,"Shoot me! Shoot me! For Cod's sake, end my sufferings." Medical men promptly eame on the spot and rendered every assistance, though, of course, it was impossible to deal promptly with so many people. 'l'he fire brigade put out the burning carriages and (lie rescuers were then able lo take some tallies of the dead and wounded. A pour lilllo bov who was killed in the smash was (brown about like a bit of lumber and a dozen almost equally heartrending scenes were witnessed. In (lie third of the shattered carriages was a parly of nine When the crash came, tlie carriage shot on (op of one car with another car piled oil top of it. The lop and bottom ears caught fire, and the party in th,. third had a thrilling experience.

file Ihiines were licking through the floor of the prison. W'itl, Herculean eftorts four of (hem managed to burst tlie door of the compartment and escaped. What became of the remainiii" live is not known. °

SUHVIVORS' -\ ARRATIVES.

Miss White, who was dragged from the wreckage, says: "i had just got intothe tram from Ballarat, which was very late. Before it moved oil', 1 heard a whistle. A gentleman said: 'ls that the Bendigo train r' Before there could be any answer, there was a terrific smash and the Bendigo train dashed into our train. Women screamed and men shouted orders. 1 started to go alow the wrecked carriages, but the sight ot tlie killed and wounded v.as too much for me. J collapsed on the platform, ihe scene was a terrible one. A woman was screaming and moaning with pail), while she groped her way round the wreck of th e train, where a'number of wounded passengers were helping one another to bind up (heir injuries. There were a lot ot children there whose cries, as they looked for their parents, were heartrending. To add to the horror of the scene, the carriages caught fire. It looked as if a number of wounded would be burned, but they soon got the flames subdued. A most pitiful right was the terror of a young mother in my carriage. She was nursing her baby when the smash came. The collision knocked the infant out of her anus. The baliy fell into my lap and then oil to the floor. The mother was almost distracted as she searched about the compartment for her baby. On finding it uninjured, she gave a cry of jov and fell in a faint." Another passenger states: "A battlefield scene could not have been worse than the frightful scone of carnage in the big room of the Sunshine Harvester Works close by, which, large as it was, would not hold all those w r ho urgently

I uimicu iiLUMitiun. i saw a v«rv larg number of people horribly mutilated Indeed, it was the exeeptiun to com aero>s anyone who had not heen injure, in some \v,i y. A very large number o the passengers were panic-stricken am l<>M their They added liy tlief wild rushes 11> (lie terror of (he Iri gcdv. Several people were burned t< deatli betore any hel]) could be renderet to them." It was half-past three before the in it)red reaelied .Melbourne. It is impossible yet to give the lisl of the killed, but amongst those identified are Alfred lllingson, Maria Dan nocli, Amy hillin, and Alice Laffiri, Among the seriously injured arc Jessie Williams, Alexander Oliver, Hose Acreman, Annie JJallin, Harold Peters, P. Oxladc, Ucorge Needhani. t'erev Walsh \Y. Young, Wilfred Reynolds, j. Varty] Ethel Lynch, G. Hoslier. There an; forty-three less seriously injured. All the victims, so far as is yet known, are Victorians. A medical man reports that he caught ci ghoul robbing a man who was mangled badly, but in the absence of the police he could not detain liini. tine child was disembowelled. A bride and bridegroom were on their honeymoon. The bride wa killed and the husband desperately inj; red. The lire brigade from tie- Harvester Works close by rendered splendid service, and quickly extinguished the tire. The ears which were demolished contained about 120 passengers. Driver J Millmrn, who was on the engine attached to the liendigo train, stated ' that when he noticed the signals against him he applied the 'Westinghouse brake, but it refused to act. lie I lien reversed the engine, but it did not respond immediately. Then the collision occurred. Had the liallarat train got away to lime, the accident would never have happened. It was about 45 minutes Into. The noise of the collision was so great that the whole of the neighborhood was I flVAimfnl I

The platform was quite dark. It was impossible for Ihe injured passengers as tliev rushed tip and down in their excitement to avoid trampling or tumblinnover the dead and wounded.

The first ambulance train took out Dr. Percy and a corps of railway ambulance workers, who provided first, aid requisites. As their lanterns began to flit about (.lie platform the terrible scene was displayed in gruesome horror. The bodies of wouieji and men with features

ruHod °i £ r r"f uitiuu limbs 1 angled lay about the platform. One >ip»« with the head completely turn oil l> close by the mangled body of 11 lother with a dead baby clasped in hei

J lie body of a man was hanging up between two of the carriages i n such a position that for a loug time the workers could do nothing to extricate it. It was with the greatest diilieulty that many of the bodies could be extricated at all, as they were impaled on the ends oi sharp sauntered woodwork. •Numbers of the injured arc likely to succumb.

The Bendigo train, drawn by two engines, was travelling at about fifteen miles an hour. •Hie drivers and iireiuen escaped with bruises. iNoue ut the Bendigo train's passengers were injured. ilie list of those killed is not yet available, but the latest trom the scene is that forty-one bodies have been recovered, while sixty injured have been officially recorded. I ' AN OVERWORKED STATIONMASTER. I the stationmastei' at Sunshine says lie was the only one 011 duty at the station, He iiiid to set tile points for the Ballarat train to cuiue into the station and the points remained set ill that way. He was busy attending to the despatch of the Ballarat train and had not time to alter the points, even if he had desired to do so. Consequently the points stood against the Bendigo train, 'the driver 01 which disregarded the signals, with the result that the train ran over the points and smashed into the Ballarat train.

LATER LISTS Oi? TIIE DEAD.

Mel bourne, April 21. ill addition to the list already cabled, tlie following bodies have been hlcntilicd:— Elizabeth Williams, H. Peale (commercial traveller), E. H. Hughes, D. Doran, Ceorge McCall, Ill's T. McCain 1 , A. Blight, .May ltuslibrook, J. F. Williams, J. Dannock, J. Hawkins, Hose Aciicmaii, F. Sawyer, Edward Dent, F. Williamson, S. Bunyard, J. Thomas, W. Thomas, A. Clark, May Clarke. Tlie latest estimate of the death roll is 53.

Received April 21, (i p.m. Melbourne, April 21. Tlie J. Thomas previously lnentioiied is .Mrs. J. Thomas. Additional names of the killed are—Owens Illingworth, Victor l'ascoe, William N'nnkcrvis, J. Brown, Ernest Denier, Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Tucker, Agnes Wright, Dolly Creep, and Master Huntington.

DIFFICULTY OF IDENTIFICATION. PITIFUL SPECTACLE AT Till! STATION. SOME TEKIUBLE INJURIES.

Received April 21, 0.25 p.m. Melbourne, April 21. Little oi no information as to the identity of the killed could be ascertained this morning, owing to the great difficulty of identifying the bodies, almost inextricably mixed up as they were in the wreck of the shattered carriages. I lie officials at Sunshine had to leave (lie work of idontiiication to the relatives when the lirst mortuary train arrived at Spencer-street. Meantime an army of eabs arrived at the station, waggons were drawn uji in readiness, with doctors, nurses, and ambulance men waiting to render aid, while anxious Iriends patiently standing in groups all served to make a weird picture iu the dim moonlight. Tlie bodies as they lay ranged round the walls of the Spencer-street station presented an awful spectacle. The majority were shockingly mutilated. In the course of identification, some heartrending scenes were wituessed. It was pitiful to see the grief-stricken relatives led away as their sad business came to an end.

As soon as identification* were completed, tlie bodies were placed in coffins and removed for burial.

In some eases the injuries were so terrible that tlie doctors had to administer morphia and strychnine before the wounds could be dressed. In the majority of cases they were very serious, more than the usual percentage consisting of fractured limbs, shattered hips and thighs, and injuries to the spine, in addition to tlie inevitable shock.

_ There were about aixtv victims in the first relief train, eight of them dead. The second relief train brought thirtyone dead and eleven wounded. Very few of the sufferers were able to be sent to their homes.

One particularly bad ease was that of a man with a fractured thigh, who had nearly bled to death. There were great many fractured legs, arms, hip?, ami thighs, l'n some cases the eyes of the victims had been put out. There were many cases of spinal injury and a great deal of shock.

'l'he sights which met the gaze of the anxious spectators as tlie first relief train began to disgorge its freight were enough to touch the stoutest heart with their pathos and tragedy. The spectacle suggested a battlefield with its tale of victims. I'irst aid had been rendered at Sunshine. Broken

limbs were in splints, bruised heads ill bnndnges, some of the victims apparently unconscious, some short-lived with the pallor of death in their countenances, some faces covered with blood, and here and there a poor broken head showed through an extemporised handkerchief bandage. iPathetie groans broke from the lips of .some of the worst cases as they were lifted into stretchers, evidencing the in- i tense pain tliey were enduring.

" UIIASTLIKSI' .SIGHT KYER WIT- ; . NEsem" Received April 21, 10 p.m. Melbourne, April 21. When the Sunshine Fiic Brigade turned out to extinguish the burning carriages, the first man to reach the station was auxiliary fireman LcH'an. He worked energetically to put out tiif Hauling debris, and when it was possible to remove the imprisoned passcigers, amongst the first bodies recovered were those of two of his sisters. Legs and arms that 'had been cut nil' were lying around, and in the wrecked carriages some people were found with the life crushed out of theui, hanging by _ their chilis from the hat-rack, against which they had been jammed when the Bendigo engine ploughed its way into the train. Dr. Vox, the first medical man to arrive on the scene, graphically described ■his inspection of the dead and wounded while they were lying on Sunshine railway platform. JLhc spectacle that met his evos was'' awful. There were the telescoped earnages, from which the railway officials [were extricating the dead bidies and the In mg. His attention was first called o a carriage 111 which a n injured man was totally jammed between three parsmX,l°L nH Carmge ttat had w" f onl nf ß ti r concertißa fashion. It was one of the most ghastly sights he ---to Wiled " ftVC danger signalTdi SRECIAI!deI) FAILURE OF BRAKES ALLEGED. Mr 10.25 p.m. j ■ways' S;^ I,cf , Con »n |S sionci' of Rail- I Ss nnf Btatecl th »t «» the loclp,i a " d f l )0lnts at Sunshine interblock system.'" M W ° re WOl ' king fie i There appears to bo no question that tnc signals were against the Bendigo 1