ENGINE LEAVES RAILS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1940, Page 6

ENGINE LEAVES RAILS

DISASTER TO LIMITED SOUTH OF MERCER DRIVER AND FIREMAN KILLED. TEN PASSENGERS INJURED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) >. AUCKLAND, This Day. The Limited Express from Wellington met with disaster 400 yards south of the Mercer Railway station at 8.45 this morning. The en-gine-driver, J. IVICUUDDin, OT Frankton, and the fireman, C. J. Ritchie, also of Frankton, were killed and 10 passengers were injured. The.engine apparently left the rails and the first five carriages ran past it and were extensively damaged. One side of the first car was ripped right out, half a side of the second car was ripped oft’, about 10ft. of the third car was torn away, and the fourth car was partially wrecked. All these cars contained passengers. Afte'r leaving the rails, the engine toppled flat on one side towards a bank, part of it protruding over the rails and causing damage to the carriages as they went past, slowing up. The bodies of the driver and fireman were extricated wnh ropes. They were dead when removed. A well-filled race train from Auckland for the Cambridge meeting arrived at Mecer at 9.20 a.m., but the line was so completely blocked that the train could not proceed. Further rain began to fall, hindering operations. Captain Salmon, of the New Zealand Medical Corps, was a passenger on the Limited and rendered first aid. , The injured passengers were taken to a goods shed in the railway yards. Drs. Douglas and Begg, of Pukekohe, were summoned by the Mercer police and were quickly on the scene. An ambulance .was sent from Pukekohe and five ambulances from the St. John station, Auckland. LIST OF INJURED PROMPT AID FROM AUCKLAND. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. The Superintendent of the Auckland Hospital dispatched four doctors to the scene of the train smash at Mercer, and one of the five ambulances sent, carried a full equipment. At 10.50 a.m: eight of the injured passengers arrived at the Auckland Hospital, where beds were in readiness, and eight surgeons were standing ready. The first of the injured was being X-rayed by 11 a.m. and others were being operated on. The injured were: — P. D. Lark, Frankie, Auckland, both legs broken. Dudley P. Shepherd, 208 College Street, Palmerston North, broken leg. Henry John Ferguson, Auckland, broken leg. Violet Isabel Utting. Auckland, bruises and cuts, not serious. Frank Saunderson, 41 River Road, Hamilton, not serious (taken to Hamilton in ambulance). Robert Aitchison. Auckland, not serious. Roy Hookam, Auckland, not serious. Patrick Hughes, Auckland, not serious.

R. Reid, Auckland, not serious. Mary J. Webb, Hamilton, not serious, (taken to Hamilton in ambulance). Both the dead men were married, with families. The driver was domiciled in Frankton, and the fireman at Hamilton.