FEARFUL ACCIDENT ON THE G. I. P. RAILWAY.

West Coast Times, Issue 602, 29 August 1867, Page 3

FEARFUL ACCIDENT ON THE G. I. P. RAILWAY.

(pbom: the times of india.)

Early on Wednesday, 25th June, one of the most appalling accidents which it has ever been the fate of journalists in India to relate, occurred on the G. I. P. Railway to the passenger train which left Bhosawal (275 miles from Bombay) for Kundwah soon after 2 a.m. The train consisted of* the usual, first, second, and third class carriages, and had an ordinary complement of passengers. It left Bhosawal about the right time, and proceeded safely on its journey until reaching the small iron girder bridge • which crosses the Sutee river about twelve miles from Bhosawal. Here the engine, just as it touched the bridge, was found to give a sudden lurch on one side and a leap into the air. At the same time the coupling between the engine and tender snapped, and the tender, with the carriages behind it, went with a tremendous crash down through a chasm in the line right into the bed of the stream ! The night was dark and ! stormy, and a heavy rain, which had continued all through the night from an early hour the previous evening, i kept coming down "with unusual vio-

lence. When, therefore, the train went headlong into the stream, what between the blackness of the night, the raging of the stcrm, the rushing of the water, the crushing of the carriages, as the one went rolling on ' the top of the other, and the frantic screams of the doomed and dying passengers, the scene was one which can never be fully told. Among the first who met their death in the dreadful crash were two Europeans; the one was the fireman, and the other the guard in the front brake, of the train. The fireman jumped off when he felt the engine leave the rails, but he leaped into the chasm and went down with the tender. Neither of the bodies have been found, nor indeed have the bodies of most of the passengers. The river was so much swollen by the rain, and was rolling down with such force, that not only were most of the bodies washed away, but the woodwork of the carriages also entirely disappeared, the heavy ironwork alone remaining. When the fireman jumped off, +he engine-driver jumped too, but on the other side of the engine, and escaped with only a few bruises. The guard in the rear brake also escaped uninjured, his brake just stopping on the very brink of the chasm. It is said there were no European passengers in the train ; at all events no bodies have been found. Tn order to understand more clearly the origin of this gap, it is necessary to know that the Sutee, before reaching the railway, divides into two branches, or forks, over which the line crosses by two bridges about 100 yards apart, one over each prong of the fork. On the descent of the torrent, the waters did not keep within their channels, but washed over the space within the bridges, eating away part of the ground under the rails and creating the chasm into which the train sank. A special train was despatched from Bombay immediately the first telegram was received, conveying the principal officers of the company to the scene of the accident. The telegrams at first reported that the bridge itself had given way, and it was many hours afterwards before it was known in Bombay that the embankment and not the bridge had j'ielded to the action of the flood. At first only two dead were reported and about ten injured, but later official telegrams stated that the train was totally smashed, nearly all the passengers killed or drowned. Another official telegram said that the train contained about 100 passengers, and that, with the exception of four who escaped and eleven who were wounded, all the rest had been swept away; two only of the dead bodies having been recovered. This .led to a belief that over eighty persons must have met their death through the accident. It was several days later before any reliable estimate could be obtained of the number the train contained. It was then reported by the Railway Company District Superintendent that the number of persons in the train were as follows :—: — Second-class passengers, 2 ; third-class do, 50 ; railway officials, 10 ; making a total of 62. Of the actual number killed it is still impossible to speak with any degree of confidence. The railway officials report that two bodies were recovered soon after the accident ; three wounded have since died; two bodies were found in the river ; and two other have been seen floating in the river ; the fireman, one of the guards, and two passengers, whose names are known, are still missing, wad are reckoned as dead — making a total of thirteen killed. The wounded number twenty. This leaves twentynine unaccounted for, the majority of whom, it is hoped, reached the banks of the river and proceeded to their homes.