A RAILWAY COLLISION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8389, 30 March 1907, Page 5

A RAILWAY COLLISION.

ENGINE-DRIVER, FIREMAN, AND GUARD SEVERELY INJURED. LUCKY ESCAPE OF VOLUNTEERS. By Telegraph- Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, March 29. At about 1 o'clock this morning £ train from the South, carrying Volunteers to the Easter camp afc Sheffield, ran into another train from Christchurch, between Bankside and Rakaia, at a point about a mile north of the latter station. It seems that the Ijrain from Christchurch should have stopped at Bankside in order to allow the up train to pass, but did not do so, and a collision was the result. The impact was a very severe one, and both the engines were smashed up very badly ana also the carriage next to the engines.

The first carriage on the troop train happened to be empty at the time, the Volunteers having changed their quarters only a little time before. Had the carriage been occupied, all the passengers would have been killed, for the force of the collision drove the under part of the carriage right under the engine, while the roof and upper part were knocked clean off. None of the passengers were injured, but Mickle, the driver of the train from Christchurch, sustained a a ntimber of bad bruises through being, pinned in the cab, and also injuries to his leg, ar.d is suffering badly from shock. Mickle qualified las a first-class engineer eighteen months ago, and was to have reached the maximum salary on Monday. McGrath, the fireman on the same train, was cut about the head, and the guard was also severely injured. Two or three of the passengers were injured, but not to any serious extent. On account of the blockage on the line, the passengers by the night train from Dunedin did not reach here until 11 o'clock this morning. The train could not get through, and the passengers had to be transferred from one side of the wreckage to the other. The passengers by the first express for the South also had to be transferred, but the midday express passed around the shattered engines on a temporary track that had been laid down in the meantime. The wreckage was cleared away this afternoon, and the trains will run through as usual from to-night. The District Traffid Manager left for the scene of the accident this morning.