The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-23 00:00:00

serious Railway Accident near Meld.

,
On Wednesday morning, about ten o'clock, In'
ligence reached Hull that a serious and fright'n,_l
accident had occurred on the Hull and ScarboronF
line, near Driffield. At first a rumour spread
l Wtt
great rapidity to the effect that at lea3t
three Pealriv
sons had been instantaneously killed. On the ar_
the
of the first train from Scarborough, however' °r.
real extent of the disaster was made known. x
tunately matters were not so bad as had been repro'
sented, although several of the passengers had Sus.
tamed serious injury. The train to which the tio.,
dent occurred was the government train which leavee'.
Hull at 20 minutes past six o'clock in the mornia,,s
for Bridlington and Scarborough. The train_7i'f,
somewhat longer thin usual, and owing to the
field cattlefair being held a large number of butagi'
cattle dealers, and drovers from Hull were anaohgt
the passengers. The carriage nett to the engine ‘l,O
o
a third-class one, and it was to this carriage that tl:„
accident occurred. The train proceeded as usual unv`
it passed Lockington. Soon after leaving that
station the carriage began to jolt in a manner sae;
thing but agreeable to the passengers. This wbe
t
thought nothing of at first, and was believed to
caused by the line being scarcely level. This leo
found not to be the case, as the jolting got wore
and before long became almost unbearable. luefor
were about forty passengers in the carriage, and
a time they were fully convinced that the carries
had got off the line. The train was going at e°l36id
4
derable speed, and they every moment expect' t
that the carriage would be overthrown, so vi°lend
was the shaking. Tte engine-driver and flue'ra
were made aware that something wus wrong,
an
both applied their breaks to stop the train. Bef°r
the train could be stopped many of the passengerd
became so alarmed that at one time it apPear",,
highly probably that several of them would jump
out before the speed had been much reduced. ScPta°
of the more prudent of their fellow-travellers, 1101ci
ever, dissuaded them from rushing on what appear i°
to be almost certain death. So great was the Pan;
in the carriage that some of the female passenger
would have jumped out had they not been fortibli
restrained. Notwithstanding every persuasion
() 3lri
Ledger, butcher, Regent-street, Hull, sprang out d.
the carriage and fell very heavily to the gr°llll,o
By this time the alarm had spread to several of t'
other carriages, and Mr. Shearsmith, butcher, Gaul'
Berland-street, Hull, and Mr. Straker, of Beverlei'
jumped from one of the other carriages, both reci
ceiving very serious injuries. Before the train o°lll
be brought to a stand, the floor of the first comfort'
went of the first carriage was suddenly spilt
two, and the passengers with great difficult'
climbed into the next compartment, thus escaPins
serious injury. The train was stopped a short die
ci
tance from Hutton Cranswick, when it was fnar3a
that the broken carriage was off the line, en
that the tire of one of the wheels 14.35
broken. The passengers, having satisfied they'
selves as to the cause of the accident, started
great numbers back along the line in search of tiles'
who had jumped out of the carriages, and whom the'
fully expected to find either horribly mangled Or
killed. Mr. Ledger was found lying on his back 16
a state of insensibility. He was much bruised ahnti,t
the head, and on one eye there was a frightful gas:
from which the blood was oozing Mr. Shearsinitl'
was found in a state of great suffering,having hr°l',el33'
one of his legs in the fall. Mr. Streaker had al
received serious injury, and had by the leap fe°"-
the train put out one of his ankles. A Mr. Straker'
jun., and Mr. S. Edmonds, Hull, also jumped fri:l
the train, but escaped unhurt, The sufferers received
every attention, and were brought to Hull by the
train from Scarborough, which arrived at the scene
of the disaster a short time after its occurrence'
The shattered carriage having been got out of the
way the passengers were conveyed to their clestinV
Lion.—Eastern Counties Herald.