Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-16 00:00:00

FRIGHTFUL COLLISION ON THE SOUTH
WALES RAILWAY.

Poser TALBOT, Oct. 14.—A fearful collision of two pas
senger trains meeting each other on this railway took
place on Wednesday about noon, between Pyle and Port
Talbot. One child was fearfully mangled and killed on
the spot, and broken limbs are unfortunately very
numerous. The accident, if gross negligence can be so
called, happened under the following circumstances :
The d3O morning train from Cheltenham to Milford
Haven had arrived in due course at Pyle, a small station
next to Port Talbot, and was about ten minutes after its
time. On arriving here a messenger brought the intel-
ligence from westward that. a truck in a goods
train on the main line of rails—the Irish train
proceeding to meet the packet at Milford—had broken
down and blorked up the line. The messenger was
accordingly sent back with instructions to return as soon
as the line was clear, this not being a telegraph station.
Before he had returned, however, another messenger
arrived, and, having made a communication to the
station-master at Pyle, the train returned back along its
ewn line (the down line) about a mile, to a crossing at a
place called stormy, where the Lirovi Valley Railway
joins the South Wales. There the train crossed to the up
line, and then continued its journey down upon the up
line. Pyle was again passed, and the train had proceeded
about a mile further towards Port Talbot, when the
up-train, which left Milford at 7 5. and was overdue, was
observed approaning at its natal speed on the same line
of rai's round a curve. It, was too late, however, to avoid
a collision, and the shock of the two engines was tremen-
dous. Bath engines, from their ponderosity, retained
their position on the rails, but the tender of the up-train
was thrown back upon the first carriage, a third class,
which it mounted, crushir', in the roof and dreadfully
mutilating the passengers. The tender of the down- train
also was crushed back into the first carriage of that train,
frightfully maiming its occupant 4. The scene of the
catastrophe was frightful to look at, and to make it more
fearful the up express train now became due, and its
arrival was looked for every moment. The wounded
passengers were, with some delay, got out, and laid upon
the hank, and every assistance rendered them that could
be afforded under the circumstances. Unfortunate:y,
however, there was no medical man in either of the trains,
but a young student resident near was quickly on the
spot, and rendered valuable assistance until the arrival of
surgeons from Port Talbot by a special engine in about an
hour after the collision. One of the stokers was crushed
in the wreck of the tender, and was with some difficulty
extricated. The line was strewn with splinters of wood,
broken iron, &o , and blood was sprinkled over the ground
in several pearl s, rendering the spectacle (together with
the groans of the injure) horiifying in the extreme. As
far as we could learn in the confusion incident upon the
accident, the following is a list of the dead and seriously
injured :

Robert Pa,mer, d aver of the up•train, broken leg ani severe cats
on the head.
.1. S. Lawson, fireman of the d ma-train, broken les and otb,r

injuries.

Mr. Ashman, pork botcher, Cardiff, a frightful!ys nashei leg and
other ser:ous injuries abut the head aril faze. It is leanl his case
will nod Wall The flow of Wood was so great that, after forming
pool round him, it fl)wal away out at the d)or of thz.. carea ;e in
which he was placed for removal to the hospital.
Mary Thomis, or Thntaida,:of C.rd,ff, broken leg and other
injuries.

John Prince, carpenter, Bristol, s3ve:o injuries on fie bazk;
incapable of uroving.
Mr. Brewster, printer, of S wanra, compound fracture of the leg
and other injori.A. '1 his passenger hal taken an insurance ticlet,
which fact he carefully comma tioate 1 to his follow p taleaga a in
the m d•t of his buffet lags.
Mr Thomas Williams, drapsr, Abery twit's, in'erns' injar es.

Mrs. Cccil, wife of Po 'ice-sergeant Ceail, of Cwin Ammon, frightfal
injuries to the heal. She was removed bo Port Talbot, where her
husband met her, and berms received prompt attention.

Ann Harman, a young anmarriel woman from Nelth, internal

itj cries

Sarah Iltrman, aged four years, a fine little girl, who wad travel-
linkwlth her aunt, the list-named sufferer, was killed o the spo',
her body lroing fearfully mangled, oat b ackened by the coils from
the tender.
Bidwell, severe injuries about the held and face.
A woman, name unknown, bola lag+ br_ken. She was carried to
a farm-home near. i
An aged woman, name unknown, internal inkirie..

There wore also a great many other persons who hid
received cuts about the heads and legs, and contusions
on various parts of the body, and in fact two thirds of
the passengers in the two trains were more or less
injured. The above, however, are the most serious cases.
As soon as a pilot engine had arrived from Port Talbot,
the wounded passengers, who had been lying on the
embankment close to the train, were carried into a goods
vaa and a carriage, and conveyed to Yort Talbot, and
thence the most serious cases proceeled on to the Swan.
sea Infirmary, whore every attention was paid to them.
Mr. Clarke, the general superintendent at Swansea,

immedieely on hearing of the accident, proceeded to the
spot, ant in ail !ncanticae all the traffic between Pot
Talbot and Pyle was stopped.
No doubt the most strict investigation will take place,

and it is hoped that the person who ordered the down-
train to proceed on the 'Up line will be Droporly

THE LIVERPOOL CLIR9TICLE AND Tab
LEXINGTON.

It is often amusing to think how some of our "best pub-
lic instructors" will commit the most egregious blunders
in their anxiety to pick that which will pass amongst their
readers r the news of the day. But that one of the
leading organs of such a great mercantile and maritime
commuAty, as Uverp )01, should so egregiously blunder, is
quite as amusing as it is astonishing. The readers of the
Daily Reporter of yesterday, were informed from authori-
tative sources—indeed from the log book, and from the
personal narrative of the captain and chief officer of the
Resolute to our reporter, of the total loss of the American
ship Lexington, which sank in deep water with three of
her orew off Puffin Island in Brandon. Bay, on the north-
west coast of Kerry, on Thursday last the Bth of October,
and was seen no more. However, the necromatrer of the
Chronicle of Saturday, October 10th, that is two days
later, was enabled to snake the following announcement in
his paper of that day

The ship Lexington, of 1.000 tone burtho 1, remtly stranded in
Dandram Bay, he, ban got ado it by the aid of thi steam pumping
app,,ratn, belonging to the Now S earn Tug Company, and has
arrived i.i the Mass/ in tow of the steamer .resolute.

We hear so much of submarine doings now a days that
we can only conjecture tho unfortunate L, xin,ron may
have been transferred 'tinier au zter from V t.eacia to
Liverpool in two days —cre tat Jadeas, or, is other words,
it may be told to the marines; but we hlppeaed to see
the Resolute steam out of Qtoenvown harbour at 5 p.m.
on Monday, but she had no .Lexiilgton in tow or any other
craft. Public journals are frequently subject to be
m,bil'ormed as to facts, and we trust this announcement
was only unintentionally inc•wrect, for if it w a wilful
hoax, it was a cruel and hearCess one.—C,ork Reporter.