TRAIN SMASH.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1921, Page 5

TRAIN SMASH.

DISASTER IN WALES. TWENTY PASSENGERS DEAD, SCENE OF TERRIBLE WRECKAGE. By Telegraph.-Press Assn.—Copyright. London, Jan. 26. A passenger train and express met in a head-on collision at Abermule, Montgomeryshire, Wales. The leading carriages were telescoped. About sixteen are dead. Received Jan. 27, 5.5 p.m. London, Jan. 26. According to later reports ten are dead at Abermule, including Lord Herbert Vane Tempest, a director of the railways on which the disaster occurred. Seventeen were injured.—Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.

FULLER DETAILS. SEVERAL COACHES TELESCOPED. HUSBAND SAVED; WIFE KILLED. Received Jan. 27, 7.55 p.m. London, Jan. 27. ' Twenty are dead at Abermule. The scene of the disaster is a lonely spot in the Welsh hills, through which runs a single track railway, run on the block tablet system. It is not known why the slow train left Abermule instead of waiting for the express, as is usual. The trains met within a hundred yards of a bend in the line, which obscured the view of the fireman and the driver of the express. They whistled, put on the brakes, and then jumped from the footplates almost at the moment of the collision. They were only slightly injured, while the driver and fireman of the slow train were killedNo one else on the slow train was badly hurt.

The deaths were practically confined to the second and third coaches of the express, which were telescoped by the express first and fourth coaches. The engine of the slow train stood upon the debris of the express to a height of twenty feet. From the wreckage beneath the engine came muffled cries and groans, and the other passengers quickly /set to work getting out the injured and the dead It took five hours to extricate some passengers. One man got out at a previous station to buy a newspaper, but he was unable to reach his own carriage, where his wife was travelling. He jumped from the rear of a carriage and was unhurt, while his wife was killed. The poor fellow darted round the wreckage demented, crying: “My wife; she’s in there.” Two boys, sons of Mr. A. L. Onslow, and nephews of Lord Onslow, ex-Gover-nor of New Zealand, were killed. They were going to Harrow School. —Aus and N.Z- Cable Assn.