RAILWAY DISASTER

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10154, 28 December 1910, Page 5

RAILWAY DISASTER

CABLE NEWS

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.

A TERRIBLE COLLISION. TRAIN ABLAZE. LONDON, December 25, A terrible railway disaster lias occurred at Hawes, in Yorkshire. The Midland Express, bound for Glasgow, with 500 x holiday-makers aboard, was running at 60 miles an hour when it overtook two light engines going at twenty miles an hour. The engines had been assisting southward bound trains. The crowded express crashed on to the light engines with terrific impact, and carried them a hundred and fifty yards. The two locomotives drawing the express jumped the metals, and were flung over'an embankment. A fire started in the. restaurant ear, and the- train was soon a blaze, the carriages being quickly reduced to ashes, and only the ironwork left.

A SCENE OF HORROR

The accident occurred in darkness in a wild, mountainous region in the heart of the Pennine chain, and the crowd and burning train presented a scene of the utmost horror. A young married couple were pinned among the debris, and saw their five-nionths-old infant burned to death before their eyes. The couple themselves were saved. Owing to the number of tragedies during the week the Christmas of 1910 has been named "The Black Christmas."

MARVELLOUS ESCAPES. The fire is fittributecl to ail explosion of gas in a tank. The high wind fanned the flames. The rearmost carriages, by becoming uncoupled, were saved. The driver and -fireman of the express had miraculous escapes with minor injuries. The rescuers were trying feverishly to relieve a. medical student, when the fire swept up to where he was pinned. The student thanked his would-be rescuers, and sent a message to his mother. The fire then silenced his. voice for ever. SIGNALMAN ADMITS HIS MISTAKE. Sutton, a Midland railway signalman, who has worked iu the .service for-twenty-one years, admits that he transferred two engines from a branch to the main line in order to deal with seven engines returning south. Sutton then forgot the two engines, which he was unable to sea owing to a rainstorm. He signalled to ihr* express that the line was cLar. ond the three drivers presumed the signnis rc ferred to themselves. The identification of the dead is being determined by their nonarrival at their destinations.

(Received Last Night, 10.55 o'clock.) LONDON, December 27. At the enquest on the victims of the Hawes railway accident, it was stated that ten deaths had been traced, though the Midland Company have been notified that twelve are ingThe Company admitted its responsibility and promised that reasonable claims should be dealt with promptly. The inquest was adjourned until Thursday, after the identification of the bodies. The newspapers comment , on the danger of the highly inflammable gas cylinders beneath the carriages used on the principal railways, though electric lighting has been substituted on some of the long-distance expresses.