MIRACULOUS ESCAPE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10453, 19 October 1911, Page 3

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE

MAN FALLS UNDER * MOVING TRAIN.

GUARD'S PROMPT AOTIOX SAVES A LIFE.

A miraculous •escape from a fatal accident occurred at the Waipawa railway station when the express was leaving for Napier on Saturday evening. Just as the train moved an elderly man, named W. Robb, who had been saying good-bye to friends on board, stepped from the carriago in the wrong direction, that is, with his back to the engine. The consequence was that he missec has footing, stumbled, and fell between the- platform and the moving train.

The occurrence was witnessed by the assistant guard, M>r L. Hammond, who, with admirable presence of mind, sprang to the rear of the carriage on which ho was, and applied the Westinghouse brake. This brought the slowly moving train to an abrupt (Standstill within a few yards. The dangerous predicament of the man had been witnessed by the local police constable and the sWtion-anas-ter, and when the train was stopped they pulled hiiro on to the platform in a dazed condition. His coat was torn from (his back, and his face and head were badly gashed, blood flowing profusely from his wounds. It iwae impossible to tell at the moment whether he .had been badly hurt, but he was taken into the station in order that his injuries might be attended to.

It imay be imagined what a close oaii he had when <we :say that there were .scarcely two inches (between his .head and the moving train. His head and body were -struck by the pasising woodwork of /several of the carriages.

The prompt action, of the assistant guard certainly saved the man's life. —Telegraph.