THREE MORE DEATHS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1943, Page 4

THREE MORE DEATHS

in Tragic railway smash TOTAL NOW TWENTY-ONE. AN INSTANCE OF GOOD AND BAD LUCK. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, June 6. The death roll in the tragic railway smash at Hyde on Friday afternoon mounted to 21 at the weekend. A further body was recovered from the wreckage on Saturday afternoon, and three seriously injured men died. The work of clearing the line of debris went on over the weekend and it is now considered extremely unlikely that any more bodies remain in the wreckage. All the dead have been identified.

One of the injured women in the Ranfurly Hospital, Mrs R. Maskell, Dunedin, whose leg was broken and crushed, had her leg amputated, but her condition is reported as fair. In the first list of dead issued the night of the disaster it was stated that Maureen Tyrrell, of Makarora, had been killed. This was incorrect, but she is among the injured in the Ranfurly Hospital. An instance of good and ill luck in the train smash is related. A woman with a centre seat in one of the telescoped carriages gave her seat to a woman with a baby just before the crash. The latter were killed and the woman now in a corner seat, escaped. The dead and injured, in addition to those published on Saturday, are:— DEAD Desmond Edward White, aged four months, son of Mrs White. John William White, aged five years, son of Mrs White. Mr John Wright, Ranfurly. Mr John Martin Nicholas Frater, Alexandra. Mrs Ethel Annie Cassells, Kokonga. Mr John Edward O’Connell, Hyde. Mr Thomas Henry Clare, Oamaru. Mr Frederick Christopher, Dunedin. INJURED Mr Raymond Tait, Naseby, aged 16 years, scalp wounds. Maureen Tyrrell, Makarora, aged 14, abrasions. Mr Straun Robert Stringer, Gimmerburn, aged 19, injuries to arm.