TRAGIC DISASTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1943, Page 3

TRAGIC DISASTER

ON CENTRAL OTAGO RAILWAY ENGINE DERAILED IN CUTTING EIGHTEEN PERSONS KILLED. ABOUT FORTY INJURED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, June 4. Ranking high among the most tragic of the comparatively few serious accidents that have happened in New Zealand railway history, a disastrous derailment on the Central Otago line this afternoon involved the death of 18 passengers and injury to at least 40 more.

As the train which left Cromwell at 9.10 this morning for Dunedin with a big complement of passengers reached a curve in a cutting three miles on the Dunedin side of Hyde, at approximately 2 p.m., the engine left the track and crashed on its side. The first of the cars ran past the overturned engine, telescoped and was smashed, while the following four cars were badly telescoped. Eighteen of the passengers are reported killed, while about 40 are more or less badly injured. Many of the other passengers were tangled in the wreckage and had to be extricated. AID QUICKLY DISPATCHED. All possible aid was immediately arranged by Dunedin railway officials and rushed to the scene from Ranfurly, Middlemarch and Waipiata hospitals. while three fully-staffed ambulances, two doctors and a number of nurses were dispatched from Dunedin. Two railway buses and two corporation buses were also sent for the purpose of bringing to Dunedin any passengers able to travel in that way. There was an exceptionally heavy loading on the train, the passengers including many coming to town for the winter show and the races at Wingatui tomorrow. No horses were on the train.

Among the injured was the driver, who received a badly fractured arm and severe scalds. The fireman was also badly scalded. Immediately after the accident, contact was established by telephone with the railway authorities at Dunedin, ant] a breakdown train was at once assembled and dispatched to the scene of the accident. Later news from the scene of the disaster states that at a late hour tonight, 13 bodies had been recovered and others were still in the wreckage. A tragic incident was that in which an elderly woman was rescued, but lost her husband, a daughter and two grandchildren among the killed.

In another instance, a woman was rescued after being pinned under the wreckage for five hours, during the whole of which time she remained conscious. She was pinned by the legs and rescuers were unable to set her free.

Immediately following the accident, doctors were called in from all the neighbouring centres and local residents as well as ambulance and railway staffs gave valuable assistance. The injured were removed to the Ranfurly Hospital, where about 32 were accommodated, a few were sent to the Middlemarch Hospital and a few more came to Dunedin. ACCOUNTS OF ACCIDENT.

It is officially stated that the derailment occurred at 1.45 p.m. and the first information was received in Dunedin at nine minutes past two by telephone from Waipiata, the call being sent by a man who walked a mile from the scene of the accident.

Uninjured passengers had begun to arrive in Dunedin before 10 p.m. and some of the more seriously injured cases reached Dunedin Hospital shortly after that hour. Passengers who were in the second carriage from the front of the train said they were able to escape from the windows, and most of them were not seriously injured. They stated that for about three minutes before the accident occurred they felt the train swaying. They also said that because of the isolated position where the smash occurred, about an hour and a half elapsed before rescuers began to arrive. In the meantime uninjured passengers from the rear carriages rendered first aid. High tribute was paid to the great rescue work performed by Mr Philip Banon, a member of the Merchant Navy who recently returned from a Pacific base.

The engine-driver, Mr J. P. Corcoran, was transferred to Ranfurly Hospital. The fireman was Mr S. G. Hollows. The guard, Mr Pratt, is suffering from scalds.

DEAD & INJURED

AVAILABLE PARTICULARS

(Special to “Times-Age.”) DUNEDIN, This Day

Following are particulars thus far available of the dead and injured in the train disaster: — DEAD

Duncan Brown Lindsay, Wedderburn. Thomas M. Chisholm, Cromwell. Mrs W. White, Timaru. Thomas B. Connor, Kyeburn. John Black Connor, Kyeburn. Francis Robert Kinney, Hyde. Charles Robert McKenzie, Alexandra. William Vivian Carson, Ranfurly. Duncan MacDonald, Patearoa. Robert Carr, Patearoa. Charles Douglas, Kyeburn. John Maskell, Dunedin. Daniel MacDonald, Poolburn.

Mrs White’s two children, both boys (one aged about six months and the other about five years). The dead also include a youth aged 16 to 18 years, a middle-aged man with a rail ticket from Alexandra to Timaru and a male child, aged about four years. Two victims are still to be accounted for. INJURED Frederick Christopher, Dunedin, ..22, head injuries. Dorothy Robinson, Dunedin, 24, injuries to hip.