TRAIN SMASH.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 September 1922, Page 4

TRAIN SMASH.

ACCIDENT NEAR NGAERE. NO ONE INJURED. SEVERAL WAGGONS TELESCOPED. THE LINE BLOCKED. A serious train smash occurrton half a mile north of the Ngaere station, yesterday morning, nine goods waggons being derailed «.nd six telescoped and smashed. About 30 passengers, mostly women and children, were on board, but no one was injured, the passenger cars remaining on the line. The smash was caused by a goods waggon in the centre of the train becoming derailed and throwing eight other vehicles off the line, which is completely blocked. It is expected the line will be clear to-day. The south-bound mixed train which leaves New Plymouth at 7.50 a.m., and should arrive at Ngaere at about 10.30 o’clock, was badly wrecked about half a mile north of the Ngaere station yesterday morning. The eighteenth goods waggon “hopped” the rails and bounded along on the sleepers and ballast for about three hundred yards before it was noticed by the driver. The brakes were already slightly applied, as the train was on a decline, but on noticing the waggon in the centre of the train unduly jolting, the driver applied the brakes more forcibly. It was too late, however, for the train parted in the centre. Eight mpre‘ waggons jumped off the line, and with the great weight rushing on behind were sJrged into each other, and piled up in a confused and tangled mass of broken and twisted wood and metal. Every waggon, first derailed right back to the first, passenger car, was smashed, the last one remaining partly on the line and helping to save the two passenger cars. EXPERIENCE OF PASSENGERS. The passengers were thrown abo v ut in tho cars by the wild jolting and sudden stop, but no one was injured, aitbajjigh they were badly frightened. The first, car contained about 15 people, mostly w&men and children, proceeding to the Ngaere Gardens. The accident happened in!* a block cutting about 12 feet deep, and tlje wreckage was piled up to the top, completely blocking the line. The engine, one of the new A.B. type, and the foremost 17 waggons, did not leave the line. The enginedriver (Mr. Bateman) and the stoker (Mr. C. Ardern) could not ascribe reason for the accident, excepting that tit was caused by a simple derailment. The train was not travelling fast, but the rear waggons were obscured in dust, which prevented the driver from seeing the derailed truck sooner. The Stoker said it appeared from the engint car must have been smashed, and he was greatly relieved to find the passenger cars intact and no one hurt. , The guard was collecting tickets in a car when the smash occurred. He said the carriages rocked and jolted considerably, and then came to a stop. The passengers were thrown about and badly frightened, but were soon reassurred. SCENE OF WRECKAGE All precautions were immediately taken for the safety of other trains, and guards were placed on the wreckage. Telegrams were despatched to the New Plymouth and Wanganui offices and the stations between and a breakdown train was at once sent out from New Plymouth to clear the line, which cannot be deviated round the wreckage on account of the deep cutting. The passengers mostly secured cars and were soon away from the scene; but throughout the day a large number of people from the neighboring towns and countryside visited the wreck. The waggons, several of them box-waggons, were smashed to atoms, the foremost being deeply imbedded in the bank and ploughed into the ground at the side of the track. Every truck was loaded, and the goods, consisting largely of cement, were hopelessly mixed with the mass of broken iron and wood. Surmounting the pile was the dressed carcase of a pig, its legs protruding from a bag. The track was badly buckled and torn, and the sleepers will probably require renewing for a distance of three or four hundred yards. The truck first derailed bumped along from sleeper to sleeper for about that distance, a great many of the sleepers being broken and turned up at the ends. DELAY TO TRAINS. The accident did not affect the train which arrives at New Plymouth at 10.15 a.m., but the train usually arriving at 4 p.m. was subjected to a delay of about two and a-half hours. A special train was made up at Stratford and sent down to the scene of the accident, where passengers had to tranship from one train to the other. The 7.40 p.m. train to New Plymouth was cancelled, the mail train picking up and setting down passengers for that train instead. The mail train last night stopped at Ngaere and passengers had to walk to a train waiting on the oth?r side of the broken line. New Plymouth was reached at 9.20 pun. Seen last evening, the New Plymouth stationmaster (Mr. J. O’Shea) said no trains would be inconvenienced to-day, the usual service being maintained, as it was expected that the line would be cleared in seven hours. A seven-ton crane from New Plymouth was sent down to Ngaere yesterday morning, and the inspector of permanent ways, who happened to be in New Plymouth, also went down to the scene of the accident.