EXETER HORROR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 256, 27 March 1914, Page 3

EXETER HORROR.

I MIDXRiIIT TRAIN SMASH. THRILLING narrative of the DISASTER. (Sydney Daily Telegraph.) The Temora mail train, crowded with passengers, crashed into a standing cattle train at Exeter station at 11.40 p.m. on March 13th. The two middle carriages of the mail were telescoped, and fourteen people killed. The collision occurred in a heavy fog, which is supposed to have so obscured the signals that the driver of the mail was unaware of the presence of the other train until lie was within but fifty yards of the engine. The two trains met head on with a terrific crash, almost under the signal arm. The goods train, which was hound for Sydney, from Junee, lia<l pulled out from the main line, and was just across the points preparatory to shunting on to the loop so as to allow the mail to pass. Heartrending scenes followed the collision. One man lay pinned beneath heavy timbers in such a position that he could move no portion of his body save his right hand, which projected from tlic carriage. This' lie waved feebly, and when the rescuers came with lifting jacks lie told them in a voice ever-grow-ing fainter what to do and how to do it. The last timbers liad scarcely been lifted from him when lapsed into unconsciousness, never to recover. A PATHETIC FAREWELL. One of the victims, Mrs. Clarke, died in great, agony. Her last words were of her family. "At Newcastle they live," she told the attentive doctor, and expired. Another woman was only rescued after a ganger had. chopped a 'doonvay with a hatchet. She had a miraculous escape. When found she was sitting upright in a second-class compartment, unable to move for the pressure of the splintered limber, but was released with scarcely a scratch. Her mother was lifted out dead from the wreckage tit her feet.

Arthur Heaver, one of the injured, was left to mourn his father, sister, and wife. On the same train was the body of the mother, whom the family were taking to Cootamundra for burial. A German named Kuzenhagen, who was killed, carried in his pocket a certificate from a Sydney employment agency, certifying to his identity and that of his wife, under engagement to Mr. M. Brown, of Rosevale, Young. The unfortunate couple, who were believed to he only recent arrivals, were never destined to reach their new home. MARVELLOUS ESCAPES.

How the drivers and firemen of the two engines escaped it is hard to understand. The buffers of the engines were smashed hi as if they were made of wood, and the coal in the tenders must have buried them as they stood in the cabin, for it fell four feet thick piled up against- the fire boxes. The representative of the Daily Telegraph was at Exeter at daybreak. The scene was a dismal one. A thick fog obseiired the landscape, except within a radius of 100 yards. It was bitterly cold, and a driving mist added to the horror of it all. Fifty or more gangers were busy clearing the debris from the vicinity of the smash. The men worked almost noiselessly. It was no time for noise. Everyone had thoughts of the. dead bodies that lay in a grim row in the adjacent goods sheds. The men worked heroically all that long night, lifting huge weights, and smashing away woodwork that at first defied them. It was pitch dark at the time of the collision, and the events that followed will live long in the memory of those who were unfortunate enough to be there.

The tusk of identifying the bodies proved the most pitiful of all. In most instances letters in the pockets of the clothing were the sole clues.

INJURED REMOVED TO BOWRAL. Long before 2 o'clock the injured were on their way to the Berrima District Cottage Hospital, at Bowral. The dead were removed to the railway goods sheds, and at dawn there was nothing to be seen but the wreck itself, and the hundred or so who had carried out the work of rescue, standing gloomily reflecting on the horrors they had witnessed.

The night officer at Exeter rose gallantly to the occasion. No time wus lost in advising Goulburn, Moss Vale, Bowral, and other adjacent railway centres of the district, and relief was manner. A breakdown train from Conlburn, witli a large number of gangers

ami railway officials, and Drs. Buchanan and Wilson, was first to arrive. Shortly afterwards the breakdown gang from IHoss Vale, and, in addition Drs. Quinn and Stephenson and Nurse Ryde, were on the scene. Dr. Harbison, of Bowral, arrived later. The little baud of doctors, with the one plucky iiur-e, fought a great fight jin (III! darkness. Hysterical women wore I pacified, the wounded attended with i the greatest care and patience, and the j dead taken from among the debris. | The workers had an easier task when, I with the wood from the wrecked cari riage.s, four big bonfires were, lighted. They could distinguish the bodies among the wreckage, and do what- was necessary to free the unfortunates. Later big acetylene flare lights wore brought into requisition, and the volunteers worked as in the daytime.

HOW IT HAPPENED. THE OI'TfCTAL ACCOUNT. From the necessary colorless report supplied by (lie railway authorities, it is impossible at present to say what was the initial error that caused the smash. The official statement supplied by the Railway Commissioner's office is > (robbed of technical detail) as follows:

The accident occurred at about midnight, at Kxctcr, between tile ''down" Temora mail train, which left Sydney at 8.10 p.m., and an "up" goods 'train. As tlie Temora mail approached Exeter, a dense fog prevailed, and the driver van liv the home signal. The goods train had been drawn 111 rough (he trussing loop out on to Lbe. main line at the .Sydney end of the station in order to bring tin,' brake van clear of the main line at (lie Albury pwl of the station, and was about to set

kick into the wing of the crossing loop, and so clear the main line at the Sydney end. When the collision occurred, the engine of the goods train was on the Exeter side of the home signal. As the result of the collision, both engines were very badly damaged; the postal van and two carriages immediately behind the engine of the Temora mail were telescoped, and several trucks behind the locomotive of the goods (rain were derailed and more or less smashed. The driver of the Temora mail was P. Irwin, who had had considerable service in the department. The line was cleared at 7.30, and tra Die gradually worked back to normal during the day. -