The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-12-29 00:00:00

TERRIBLE RAILWAY

ACCIDENT.

LOSS OF TIIIRTY-ONY LIVIS.

SEVENTY PERSONS SEVERELY INJURED.

A terrible railway accident happened on Thursday on
the i:reat Western Railway. The morning exprtems front
l'o.thlingten to the North. well tilled. left Oxford about
noon, and had not proceeded tunny mikes before the tire
of one of the wheels of the leading carriage gave way.
The coupling iron, snapped, and the train was precipi-
tated down • steep embankment. Fourteen carriages
which formed the rest of the train were completely
reach
Dwilthro.l7:eC:!l:l7iwn:Wd:loulnnti:l::::alutTillet:s4:oicanuithnati:lll:Ettigi:eiwnentediedgu:dreadb?...bei.thly":".hiier:.7rebinagullengTtww.Obehaitzitmw:uee:Otilsittwialirteteh6:isde-
knees was unhurt, while the YOU/1g Man ja a
compartment containing eleven permute!, five or whom
to picots. th:e gentleniaau"wasaaain immediately
oeiu eelet wh uro
seven out of the nine occupant. wore was CUL
ato.l bruiswj

_
—A
labouring man, as the train which met the accident
paasial him, saw something flying into the air higher than
the telegraph wires, some two or three wiles (ruin
Ilaundeu (jay. and on picking it up discovered that it
was a portion of the tire of • wheel which, it is presumed,
was the origin of the disaster.
Looking over the bridge ltitn the canal we could see
great iron carriage wheeis and ceetiona half buried in the
mud. U lion • pot by the water aide still hanga a bonnet
with tattered ribbons and drenched Milton, and there
were other such indications along the bank.. Many poor
creatures were precipitated with the catriagss into the
water ; some crawled out; others were taken out either
alive or dead. The snow on the bank allows the deaperate
footprints of the re,uol and rescuer. Further along the
line, is a Pile of luggage unowned, like imuly of its owners.
There are costly portmanteaus, boxes of On and wood,
hampers and make, and all the odd and ends which may
be expected in a luggage can at l'hriatinactide. Many
sad witlicacc-a lie around of what has gone before. The
broken toy, the lady's umbrella snapped in twain, the
well-worn rusty little reticule, the sportioan'a millrace, the
half-exposed forester', trained certificate and it, damaged deal covering, the soldier's kit, the sailor's clotlieabag,
the crushed bonnet-box. Beyond the up Brie stands a
tirst-class carnage of four compartmenta The crimson
splashes, that te I a startling tale, on the yellow roof, and
over the cushions, and upon the confectioners LOC and
evening paper on the floor, are sickening indeed, bringing
the one consolation that the sufferers met., if • violent, an
instantaneous death. The amend compartment contained five paseeogers; two were killed, and it is their life-blood
that darkens the laittered fool-warmers and speckles the
brass dourhandirss and shivered plate glass.
A temporary mortuary was provided at the paper-mill,
and the bodies were arranged in two rows upon straw.
Still and quiet enough they lay, though by the dull
December light that struggled feebly through the windows,
the trams of the terrible agony that had in some caries
preceeded death were plainly discernible. First in the
use was • remarkably handsome young fellow, of about
tweutydive, black curly hair and • slight moustache; his
features, weanag that peculiar waxen tint that death
imparts, were as calla and serene aa though he had been sleeping. Next to him was a bearded man, his figure
bidden by • railway rug, and i,y,,ad there was a stout
dark woman, with features yet convulsed by her last
agony. The next wan was bruised about the bane, the
traced of clotted blood yet clie-ing round his mouth and
nose. Further cm seat an elderly loan, stout and grey-
bearded, with his lower limbs decently disposed, but with ht. arms twisted arras his body, as though still striving
to keep off solos crushing weight. A woman, with face
convulsed and hair dishevelled, a young man dressed as an officer in the merchant service, and several others com-
pleted this row. The saddest sight of all wee on the
other side of the room, here, next to the body of •
pour fellow who had been enmediled into the ground, and
litangiy crushed to pieces beneath the buffers of the
earriage, and whoa, shattered frame bad been covered
by a strip of tarpaulin, lays poor little lad of about seven
years old--• look ot placid calm upon Ms chubby face,
once (rah and rosy, but now whitened by the touch of
Death's cold finger. Near him lay • young girl, who,
when removed from awouipit the shattered caniagea,
had impressed all who saw her by her wonderful fairness
if complexion, but whose counteuance in • short tiros
became almost slate-coloured. One man in this row,
apparently a nteelmilic, lad a trowel and • broken
carpenters rule placed upon his body, and upon the breast
of another staa a photograph of a ship. Several of those
lying here bore on their laces cuta and gashes wrought by
the splintered timber.' and shattered lams amidst which
they periahed, and ill more than one instance their broken
line haa vtineued iii dad!' su as to defy any attempt to
lay them out.
An extraordinary statement is made in the letter of
"An Engineer,- wlio wrote to Saturday's Times. itimoni,nt
the injured is John 3luJdee, in the employ of Mr. Lovett,
contractor, of Wolverhampton ; he was taken to Shiptua
Manor with serious ikittriei to the head. On recovering
consciouanesa he said that be was travelling with • pow
in the third-class carriage the fracture of one of the wheel
tires of which was the cau-e of the accident; that this
carriage had been ahunted for repairs at Oxford station,
and becauae there was a dencieucy of third-class accom-
modation was fetched out of a aiding and put ou in front
of the exprma train at Oxford. As "An Engineer'
remarka, "conanent.i. needles."

The statement uf Henry Richardson. the driver of one
of the engines—that one to which the carriages were
hooked —iv no lives in Wolverhampton, is that the •
arrias
the tire of which broke was put on at oxford, next to
engine.
The wheel with the broken tire is reported to have been
constructed in tits.

--The -frulie.-01-3iarlboreugh, as I.3rd Lieutenant of
oxfordAire, has headed. with a donation of 1:20 a sub.
ecription for the relief of the sufferers. Colonel V °nand
is the inspector who will report to the Itosusl of Trade
respecting this fatality, and assist Mr. Brunner. coroner.
The inquest was epelsv4 on Saturday. when a large &um-
ber of the killed u ere_ideutitied.

Me scene was au affecting one. Hero • young girl was
hardly restrained from throwing herself in an agony*,
grief upon the COrpne of a male raatiVe, 4.4.1.r0ut1y her
mother, and there sent her anguish in caresses aud tears:
there a mother, who bad long contemplatol the features
of • son, stoat rocking her body to and fro, and the loud
cry of lamentation Monist subdsled, crooning softly to
herself. in ars Oxford hot-Atha sad new-. is told to an
affectionate sister that 'luring the night her brother, who
itl a clergyman alld father, and whose 1101,r01113YAVOI had
suffered by the shock ol the catastrophe, had berollml th-4-
tracted in HAW'. SCOIVeIY two Well itt tiIIICS !icing able to
restrain his violence, :So one could listen unmoved to
the will screaming, for by no other mune can it be
denominated, of the fed parent who, at the Oxford
Station, terrified all hystauders when the intelligence was
linutght him that his two daughters, his heart's boat
precious treasure, had not, as he anticipated, travelled by
the expre'o. These are but sulihay instances of the
iutetuity of the general grief.