HYDE RAILWAY SMASH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1943, Page 2

HYDE RAILWAY SMASH

CONDITION OF INJURED NUMBER DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL. LINE CLEARED OF DEBRIS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, June 7. A number of those who were injured in the railway smash at Hyde and who were admitted to' Ranfurly Hospital were discharged today. There are now 12 patients remaining in this hospital out of the original 32. There has been a steady improvement in the condition of these patients, and those at Dunedin Hospital. Both Mrs Maskell and Mr Crutchley, both of whom were earlier reported Io be serious cases, have shown marked improvement. Both the driver, Mr Corcoran, and the fireman, Mr Hollow, are making satisfactory progress. The engine of the wrecked train was replaced on the rails today and taken to Rock and Pillar station, the nearest siding to the scene of the crash. Before the engine could be lifted back on the rails, however, the tender had to be cut off by severing the permanent couplings. The last carriage of the train was also replaced on the rails. The weather was fine today, enabling good progress to be made with the repair work. The track has been restored piece by piece as the carriages were removed, but the worst portions, the places where the engine and the last car left the rails, were being repaired tonight and the line will be clear for the passage of the train leaving Dunedin at 7.52 a.m. tomorrow. Officials from the head office of the Railways Department in Wellington, who came south by plane on Saturday, include Mr Sawers, assistant general manager, Mr Bertinshaw, chief engineer, Mr Angus, chief mechanical engineer, and Mr Brinstead, loco engineer at Christchurch. Mr Sawers stated that the personnel of the board of inquiry might be announced in a few days. Mr Sawers is a cousin by marriage of Mrs Mavis Sawers, of Alexandra, who was pinned in a wrecked carriage for six hours.