The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 28, 1858.

Attittnts nO Offences.
FRIGHTFUL RAILWAY CATASTROPHE.

On Monday last, at a quarter to nine o'clock in the
evening, an accident of a very horrible nature oc-
curred on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton
Railway, near the Round Oak station, which unfor-
tunately was accompanied by loss of life to twelve
people, while the number of maimed is very groat,
and, indeed, cannot be ascertained, in consequence of
such of the sufferers as were but slightly injured re-
turning home after the accident.
It appears that an excursion-train left Wolver-
hampton for Worcester in the morning, and upon the
return the train, which consisted of between thirty
and forty carriages, called at all the stations. Upon
reaching the Round Oak station, about nine p.m ,
the last three carriages and guard's-van of the train
became detached, and as it is an incline from Dudley
to Stourbridge, the carriages at first slowly, but after.
wards with great speed, proceeded down the incline.
The cause of the detachment of these carriages is
unknown, except that it was by a coupling-chain
breaking, but how or by what means we cannot learn.
About the same time that this took place, a luggage-
train left the Brettle-lane station, and about a quarter
of a mile from Brettle-lane, and a mile from Brierty-
hill station, a collision took place. The officials at
neither of these stations could prevent the accident ;
nor could the guard, and engineer, and stoker, who
leapt off, the former from his van and the latter
from their engine, avert the inevitable consequences.
The occupants of the carriages do not appear to have
been aware of their peril till the accident itself oc-
curred, or was near occurring. The crash was
tearful, and was heard by people who were a consi-
derable distance from the spot. The cries, too, of
the passengers acted as an alarm, and summoned
people from all parts to the fatal scene. The officials
of the telegraph, also, making known the casualty,
summoned assistance, which it is almost needless to
say was afforded in the smallest space of time ima
ginable. Drs. Walker, Carden, Johnson. Jec., were
on the ground, ministering to the sufferings of the
luckless excursionists. Frightfully mangled bodies
in which life was extinct, frightfully mangled bodies
in which, though the breath of life still was,
it only contributed to their tortures and fearful
sufferings, limbs and brains lying about, pre-
sented a frightful picture. Some of the car-
riages were splintered into thousands of pieces, the
buffers bent and broken, the materials of which they
were composed distributed pell-mell about, and, in
some instances, also, pieces of wood almost trans-
fixing the victims of this occurrence. The engine
was shattered, and in almost as dilapidated condition
as the carriages themselves. Altogether the dead
amounted to eleven, and one, who has since expired,
makes the number twelve. We tear there will be
an addition to this already large number, as it is
surmised that one or two of the injured cannot ulti-
mately recover.
The passengers were so imbedded in the wreck
that it took a considerable time to release them all
from their still perilous position. The injured and
killed were removed to the Swan Inn, the Cock Inn,
the Whimsey, the Royal Exchange, anti other public
houses in the neighbourhood. Such as had received
injuries of a not very serious nature bathed their
wounds and proceeded home the same evening. A
number of the excursionists were from Prince's End,
and the news having arrived, anxious groups pro-
ceeded to the scene of the accident, and sought mis-
sing friends in the persons of the dead anti injured
ones, and it was a painful scene, and of intense
interest, to:notice these persons when discovering
among the living those whom they expected were
gone from them for ever ; and in other cases finding
that those whom they hoped had been spared to
them hail indeed been numbered with the departed.
In one instance on Monday, some people, apparently
hard-working, and feeling acute sorrow, not only at
their own, but at others' misfortunes, arrived at the
neighbourhood where the bodies lay. At one place
they found a young man, a relation of theirs, lying
gory and lifeless on the floor; at the next they dis-
covered the body of his mother. Horrified and
almost stupified at this dreadful confirmation of their
anxiety, they still had one to look for, the father
and husband of these two departed ones. They had
not far to search, but learnt he was lying at that
time under the influence of chloroform, and under-
going the operation of having his two mangled legs
severed from his body. Though hoping to behold
him once more in life, they alas! were disappointed,
for the unfortunate man was taken from them, and
perhaps was saved the agony of mind that must have
attended his learning the fate of his wife and son,
without considering his own sufferings. While lying
in bed he inquired for his wile and child, and re-
marked that if the former was alive she wculd be
sure to come to him. Eight destitute children have
to lament their parents' loss, and also that of a
brother.

The following is a list of the excursionists who
were killed or injured by this fearful collision, which