COLLISION IN TUNNEL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1939, Page 8

COLLISION IN TUNNEL

f EXPRESS AND GOODS TRAIN PASSENGERS ESCAPE INJURY. TRUCK AND VAN DAMAGED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) TAUMARUNUI, This Day. The New Plymouth-Auckland express collided head-on with a goods train in a small tunnel north of Tuhua near Matiere on the Stratford main trunk line about midnight. A luggage Van behind the engine saved the passengers on the express from possible injury as the engine telescoped about twelve feet into the van. Only three passengers were in the leading compartment and hone were injured. The engine crews also escaped injury. They saw the approaching lights of the engine and applied the brakes hard, the trains meeting at the slow speed of about ten miles per hour. Many of the passengers were thrown from their seats by the impact. The goods train was extensively damaged, the first three trucks being a tangled mass. The first truck, filled with coal, rode on top of the second truck- which was almost broken in two. The third truck was twisted across the line. Another truck and a luggage van were also damaged. Taxis from Taumarunui went to Tuhua at 3.30 a.m. and brought the passengers to Taumarunui, the last of them arriving at eight.

It is expected that the line will be blocked for some time.