RAILWAY FATALITY

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 23 December 1912, Page 5

RAILWAY FATALITY

CABLE NEWS

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.)

THE DITTON DISASTER. j REPORT OF BOARD OF TRADE. 1 '(Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.) LONDON, December 21. The Board of Trade report attributes the Ditton accident, through the derailing of the Cheshire-Liverpool express, in September last, to the driver's insufficient knowledge of that section of the line, and to. misleading signals. The engine was insufficiently manned, and the fire was carried by the use of gas. The report recommends ti»at the Railway Companies use electricity instead of gas. (A terrible railway disaster occurred near Widnes, in Lancashire, through, the derailing of the CheshireLiverpool express. Fifteen, persons perished, many of them being roasted alive. The engine failed to take the points on. a steep incline, when approaching Ditton, and dashed int-o a. mawonry bridge spanning the line. The carriages dashed on into the station, and collided with the platform. The first two were reduced to matchwood. and the third and four wrecked, and immediately fired. There was an j appalling scene with the iiugo heap • of debris in flames, and the passengers amid it screaming in agony, and sloivl.v roasting to death. Most of the bodies recovered were in a mutilated state. That of one man was <]e- { capitated, while others had limbs torn off. The driver of the express was killed, but the fireman survived. He was pinned under the engine for four hours. Most of the victims were Welsh. Many of thern being unidentifiable. All the passengers in the fourth carriage were burned to cinder.". Thirteen charred bodies were reinnyo(l a:ul two of the injured afterwards died from their burns in the hospital. The darkness and the fiereei'w.« of the fire rendered rescue diffi-' cult. Forty persona were injured, many of them seriously.)