RAILWAY ACCIDENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1939, Page 3

RAILWAY ACCIDENT

YOUTH SHOCKINGLY INJURED. ATTEMPT TO BOARD MOVING TRAIN. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, January 2. Shocking injuries to his left leg and arm and chest were received by Andrew Wilson, aged 171 years, Manunui, when he attempted to board the Taumarunui excursion train as it moved out of the New Plymouth railway station on Sunday at 5.6 p.m. After being picked up from the track when the train had passed, he was rushed by ambulance to hospital where his condition today was reported to be critical.

The train had just started and was travelling at about 10 miles an hour when Wilson, carrying a parcel under his right arm, sprinted through the eastern entrance to the station and made a dash for the front of the third from last carriage. Despite a warning shout from a station official, he jumped toward the step of the carriage but missed his grip of the hand rail with his left hand and collided heavily with the moving train. The impact threw him full-length on to the station platform with his legs projecting over the edge. As a result his feet were struck by the rearward cars as they passed and, rolling over, he was dragged off the platform to fall on the side of the track. Because of a curve in the track, it was not possible for the engine crew to see what had happened. The train was brought to a standstill within a 100 yards or so, apparently as the result of a signal or application of the emergency brake. The amputation of both the left leg and left j arm was found necessary at the hospital.

Wilson had come from Manunui on the excursion train to spend a day at NgamotU- Beach.