THE WAITATI RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 9662, 24 October 1882, Page 2

THE WAITATI RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

*_ FURTHER PARTICULARS.

(PER UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Dunedin, Oct. 23. The following are full particulars of the late railway accident. The train comprised a six-whepl coupled "J?" engine, five passenger carriages, one roadside waggon, and a brake van. All the passenger carriages were crowded, and there must have been fully 80 passengers on board. Amongs the passengers were the son of Mr George MacI Lean, Messrs McKellar, aud Chareton, D. Dunbar (Waikouaiti), Braithwaite (Stag Point), John Grey (Dunedin), Mesdaraes Proctor and Duncan, Misses Arker (2), and Stewart (Flag Swamp). G. Underwood was driver iv charge of tbo train, J. Heslop fireman, and A. 0. Mitchell guard. At the time of the accident, the train having passed Purakanui corner and cliffs, was nearing Waitati station. In rounding the sharp curve some 50 yards on the Dunediu side of the bridge that spans the Waitati stream, the engine was running with steam shut off at- the rate of 12 to l'l miles an hour, which rato cannot, it is said, be exceeded on that part of the lino when a stoppage has to be mado at Waitati station. Some persons assert that at tbis time the ordinary rate of speed was greatly exceeded, while on the contrary, others say they observed the train and noticed it was going more slowely than usual. When a short distance f coin the bridge tbe engi c from some unknown cause jumped off the line in the cutting, and after running a short distance on the sleepers it was brought up by the left bank|of the cutting. The result was peculiar, and showed the extreme violence of the concussion. The waggon next the engine was thrown off the line and fell on its side, lying at right angles to tho engine, and completely blocking the opening on one side of the engine-cab. The couplings of the first two carriages snapped to pieces, the first carriage not being capsized ; but it also went across the line in front of the platform, striking the cab of the' engine with great violence. Mr Dunbar (farmer, "Waikouaiti), who was standing on this platform, fell between it and the engine, and sustained serious injuries to his legs. This carriage was 1 left a complete wreck. Its windows were shattered, it was wrenched from its bogie, and its front part crushed to pieces, the fore part of the next carriage having broken it. The second carriage was also materially damaged. Its fore part was broken in the collision with the second, tnd its windows shattered. The other two carriages and van left the line, but were not damaged, and beyond a little rough jolting, nothing unusual was experienced by the occupants. Those who saw the wreck agreed that the escape of the passengers was astonishing. The windows were smashed, i tne strongest wood-work broken into splinters, and the ironwork and couplings broken as if they were pieces of hoopiron, When the engine came to a standstill one opening to the cab was closed by the waggon whioh fell over to to the right of it, and the other was partly closed by the bank. The engineer and fireman managed to pass through the aperture left, and to get in safety on the bank on the left h.and side. Their escape is most surprising. They can themselvps give no very clear account of it. As soon as the engine struck the bank, and nothing could bo done by them, the fireman jumped through the opening referred to, which was on his side of the engine. The driver was about to leap the other way when he found that mode of exit blocked up in the manner described, and he instantly followed the fireman. The collision of the carriage with the engine drove a portion of the back part of the cab almost to tho furnaco door. The other carriages were damaged, in the manner described, and doubled across the line so that the train was closed up almost in the manner of a eoi.certina. Those only who were in the two front carriages were injured, and of these only eight at all seriously. Mr Dunbar was found jammed between the engine and the front of the first carriage. _te could not be extricated till some ironwork of the engine-cab had been cut away. On being removed it was found that both his legs were severely injured, but, as he had been to Dunedin for medicine for his father who was not expected to live, he insisted on being taken home, and accordingly went in an express to Waikouaiti. John Guy, employed in the Dunedin goods shed, received a nasty cut on the head, and one or two severe bruises. Mrs Jane Findlayson (of Blueskin) and Iter son were bruised and cut, but not seriously ; and Mrs Troctor (also of Blueskin) suffered a good deal from the shock.

Many other passengers sustained slight cuts and |bruses inflicted chiefly in making their escape from the carriages. The accident couTd not have occurred in any place where tbe consequences were likely to be less serious, for on either side of the line at tbe Bpot where the train left the rails there was a bank of clay several feet high. Had the train proceeded a few yards further in tha direction of the station the carriages would have shot over the bridge into the Waitati River, and the consequence would have been calamitous. So far nothing which would suggest the causa of the aco'ident 'has transpired. Among the narrow gseapes in connection with the affair is' that of Mrs Stewart who was standing beside the railway fence at the spot were the accident occurred, . looking ifor her husband, who was expected by tbe train. She states that while looking st the passing train she saw the waggon jump off the rails and at once she rushed home a little distance away, and had hardly left her stand point when one of the carriages' was thrown on to tbe very spot where a few seconds before she was standing. Mrs Stewart states tbat the waggon was'the first to leave the rails, but she -trust bave been so much engaged in watching the train of passing carriages' that, she did not see the engine when it first left the track. A gang of men were at once told off to clear the line, ahd worked without intermission from about 5.30 p.m. to 8 a.m. During the whole of that time their labour was continued without refreshment of any kind, and traffic was resumed this morning.