The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-02-05 00:00:00

SERIOUS COLLISION ON THE BRIGHTON
AND SOUfH twAsT RAILWAY.

On Wednesday morning • serious accident occurred
on Hai* line. happily unattroded by any low of life. It
tappears that on Wednesday mornings an extra earl.
train leaves Brighton to take the butchers laud farmer.
to Chichester market. This train is due at Ford Bride:
at about wren o'clock. The first up Irvin from Porto:
mouth to Brighton is also due at about the same time.
The driver of the train going to Chielawattr—which,
the bye, contained only sea:tut:ten pawengers—on
:approaching the bridge saw the proper ai.*ual, an..
atopped some 100 yards before he reached the bridge, to
allow the other train to paw. As the up train
approached, however. it waa seen that it WWI put on tat
the 4town line, A etallision was inevitable ; for although
tie train Was moving only at about fourteen 1111101 an
hour, there was nut time to atop. The engine drivel
on the haiteliers' train, which was atandity still, SAW the
danger, and cried out to the stoker, ' Ily God, he's
coining into as ! Jiamp !" As tinick as thought buth
men were off the engine, as well as the guard (who Alan
saw the danger), and they fled IlloWS the miabankusent,
into the meadow beneath. The dnver of the up angina
sow that he ear inn the wrung line, lant stuck to Inn
post ; but the stolter neon in the act Of jumping when
his engine rim into tht other with a terrible crash.
'file poor fellow wax very much injured, but the driver
of the engine e aped almost unhurt
scene now was very lamentslale, and can scarcely
li..' imagined The two engines lial fastened up to each
other, as if in twilit, with the buffer* broken, and all
the fitting* in front completely smashed up. The break
van, inausediatoly behind the temler of the up train, had
aleaduttly tea upon the tenure, and one tan' was
otieltilig high up tan the air, whilst the carnage War
broken Un in tl:e anted re:owl:able [Hannan In the
centre of this Was the guard, Frederick Mt/Or, tan •/1101,11
asOltalKe Was Soon euliderol. Strange to way tile Isen
rtalial WAS not killr.i, although he bad a serious COll-
- The only paaottagatr hurt iim this traiu—and
toced ariouseed to hey• been heat Iw—mean a *oilier of
the who wan on has way ..to Hastings, and he
received • concussion on the head. 11,4 both trains
been 1110 V ing at tile SWIM time, or the up train running
at full spetd, both eaglets mud t have heel, thrown OR
time line, and the entail would bATII liven terrific. But
at this point the trains always run at a slower apted,
for greater eafety—a very fortunate arrangement, as it
proves.. .

The down train, which was standing still, suffered also
from the collision. The force d tire two cattle trucks uff
the line, which were scattered about right and left, as
well as the guards' break, from which theguard mowed.
The pamengers here were slightly but none were
seriously injured. At the time of its occurrence it was
scarcely daylight, and extremely foggy.
As to the cause of the accident, it seems to have
been simply this :—The points are self.a.ting ; and it is
the duty of the man at the bridge to stand at the point,
and *Wady it from shaking about. He should merely
look and see that the is Mt does act properly, sad steady
it ; but, front some inexplicable moue, this man
absolutely, as we learn, took the trouble of pu.liiug
that point lilt" a St utig dieectioo, and thus forced the
train un to the wrong line. Hal lie not been near
the snot, the train would have passed right enough, al
the point aloof in its proper position, and no accident
colh ha‘e hiojipeneil
Toe debris was soon cleared off the line, and the
traffic went on as usual ; and it lea wetter of congratu-
lation th..t nothing more serious has resulted from the
unfortunate collision.