THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 87, 21 July 1910, Page 5

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

SEVERAL OFFICIALS SUSPENDED. RAILWAY'S DANGEROUS STATE. By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright Melbourne, July 20. Driver Melville and Fireman Bourke of the Elsternwick train, Guard Devitt ot the Brighton train, .Signalman McDonald of South Yarra, and Signalman Bull of Richmond have been relieved of duty pending the coroner's enquiry. McDonald states that they were using fog signals. All were in pe" r _a order, and every man in his place. Richmond gave him permission to send on the Elsternwick train.

r Investigations made by the police revealed that nine detonators exploded near the distant signal approach to Richmond station. The report sent to the department by the officer responsible for (signalling ■' : s : "Two of these detonators were exploded by the colliding of the Elsternwick train." Signalman McDonald had been on duty since four o'clock on Sunday. He should have been relieved at seven o'clock on Monday morning, but was informed that, the relief man was ill. McDonald told the stationmaster he was quite fit to continue duty and did not require relief until eleven.

The Railway Commissioners have received many messages of condolence, including one from Lord Dudley and others from the State Governors. Sympathetic reference w.os made to the accident in the Federal Parliament, and the State Assembly adjourned as a mark of sympathy with the sufferers. Mr. Hannah, speaking to the motion for adjournment, declared that it was time something was done to bring home to the public the perilous condition of , the railways. Several men had been suspended, but he never saw any mention of the Railway Commissioners, who were really responsible, being suspended.'

OLD RUNNING PLANT. DEMURS OF RESCUE WORK. GRUESOME SCENES. Melbourne, July 20. Up to last night 187 claims were received* toy the Commissioners. Some of the carriages of the wrecked trains were taken over from the Hobeon's Bay Company, and had been in use for over forty years. It was in these carriages that' the loss- of life occurred. The modern carriages near the engines Teceived a heavier shock but suffered little. The older carriages collapsed and smashed to matchwood, and the occupants were tossed about and crushed. One girl, carried aloft on the roof of a collapsed car, was rescued terribly mutilated.

Details of the rescue work form a gruesome record. In one compartment next to the guard's van the mingled bodies were crushed down to the floor with the smashed partitions and huddled together in a hideous mass. The unfortunate victims endured indescribable torments until released. . . .

In the same carriage three men had their legs pinned down by one seat, close by a woman whose head had been smashed by a beam. •A yard away a man with an eye torn out was hanging out of a first-class smoker; the body of the man was crushed as flat as a board.

'Not far off was the headless body of another victim. The head was found on the permanent way, wrapped in newspaper, and was conveyed to the waitingroom.

Crushed and maimed and in some cases legless sufferers in every kind of attitude •were seen struggling for release from the maddening agony.

ENQUIRIES IN LONDON. London, July 19. There have been many enquiries in London for the names of persons injured in the Richmond railway accident. THE INQUEST OPENED. PROBING THE MATTER TO THE BOTTOM. Received July 20, 10.30 p.m. Melbourne, Last Night. The inquest on the Richmond disaster has been opened before the coroner and a jury of seven, all of whom acted in a similar capacity 'after the Sunshine accident. The coroner announced that he proposed to probe the matter to the bottom in the interests of the State and the public. 'Evidence of identification in one case was adjourned until 22nd August. Subsequently the jury viewed the wrecked trains and the scene of the accident.