The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 27, 1861.

THE TERRIBLE COLLISION ON TEE
LONDON AND BRIGHTON RAILWAY.

LATEST PARTICULARS.
BRIGHTON, MONDAY EVENING.

The sensation created by this terrible accident
has been so intense that the various doubtful points
could only be investigated to-day, and their truth
or falsity established. We regret that the number
of deaths was not in the first instance over-esti-
mated. Twenty-two persons were instantly killed
by the force with which the engine leaped upon
them. Of these unfortunate sufferers twenty-one
have up to this time been identified. Their names
are as follows : _ .

Mrs. Ellen Lower, 1, Liverpool-street, Brighton.
Mr. Ingledew, senior, 58, St. James's-street,
Brighton.
Mr. George Westcott, 44, Lewes-street, Brighton.
An infant child of the above.

Mr. Edward Charlwood, otherwise known as
Simpson, bird-dealer, London-road, Brighton.
Mrs. Catherine Barnard, 22, Charles-street,
Brighton.
Mrs. Fillett (hitherto described as Mrs. Coomber),
Weavers' Alms-houses, Wanstead, Essex.
Mrs. Christiana Mainthorpe, Lennox Arms,
Richmond-street, Brighton.
Mr. John Greenfield, 5, Montpelier-place,Brigh-
ton. _ _

Mr. John Wheeler, 24, London-street, Brighton.
Elizabeth Wheeler, wife of the above.
David Wheeler (eighteen months old), son of the
above.

Mr. George Gardener, 2, Baron-street, Penton-
vine.

Miss Barclay, recently staying at 15, Cottage-
street, Brighton.
Mrs. Maria Edwin, 15, White Lion-street, Nor-
ton Volgate, London.
Mrs. Jane Elizabeth Biden (hitherto described as
Mary Temple), 16, Sussex-road, Cliftonville,
Brighton.
John Lockstead, 32, Adelphi-terrace, Victoria
Park-road, London.

Agnes Parker, 35, Oriental-place, Brighton.
Mary Ann Parker, sister of the above.
Mr. William Hubbard, lately staying at 17,
Viaduct-terrace, Brighton.
Henry Hayward Hubbard, grandson of the above.
The body still requiring identification is that of
a young woman.
With regard to the injured, the latest informa-
tion obtained by our reporter at the Sussex County
Hospital, where they lie, led to the belief that no
further deaths would ensue. In the case of the
man Anthony Kean, whose leg was amputated yes-
terday, and who was not expected to live through-
out the night, a rennrkable improvement has taken
place, and great hopes are now entertained of his
ultimate recovery. The next case of great danger
last night was William Arnold, who had sustained
a compound comminuted fracture of the right leg,
which was amputated by Mr. Turner, the surgeon.
This afternoon Mr. Arnold was reported as pro-
gressing favourably, although not out of danger.
This morning a female child, about three years
old, and suffering from fracture of both legs and
severe scalds and bruises, was recognised by her
father, who came from London ; and, to add to the
melancholy character of this ease, he identified the
body of his wife amongst the killed. The child is
in a very bad state, and but faint hopes are enter-
tained of its recovery. With respect to the other
sufferers in the hospital, Mr. S. T. Ellis, the acting
house surgeon, reports that no serious symptoms
have presented themselves.
As may be readily imagined, the confusion which
prevailed immediately after the accident prevented
many of the details from being ascertained. It is
now, however, generally admitted that the excur-
sion train, which should have left the Brighton
station at 8 15, did not start until 25 minutes to
nine, or 20 minutes after its time, and therefore five
minutes after the ordinary parliamentary train
(which ultimately ran into the excursion train)
should have departed. It is now clearly understood
that the excursion train had advanced between 300
and 400 yards into the tunnel before it came to a
stand. It had backed a great portion of that dis-
tance when the calamity occurred, and it is said the
parliamentary train was travelling at the rate of
nearly 40 miles an hour, and consequently, as may
easily be imagined, the shock was terrific. It is
described as all occurring in a moment, and we
gather from one of the sufferers who has so far re-
covered as to be able to give a connected narrative,
that after the shock of the collision, the tunnel
being quite dark, he groped about as well as his
maimed condition would allow him, amid a mangled
mass of dead and dying men, women, and children
buried beneath the heap of broken carriages with
the engine and tender at the top of and pressing
down the whole, the steam and boiling water at the
same time pouring over the unhappy people. When
lights were procured the tunnel was seen to be
blocked up with the fragments of the train. One
poor little infant, only 18 months old, was saved.
while its poor mother's breast was ripped up, and
her lifeless body presented a horrible spectacle.
One young man, who was partially buried in the
ruins, prayed to be released ; but, although every
effort was used, he was not extricated for nearly an
hour, and died before he could be removed to the
hospital. The spectacle presented harrowed the
feelings of all. The bodies of men, women, and
children lying together in an almost undistinguish-
able mass, some, although not dead, being fright-
fully mutilated and blackened by the pressure, pre-
senting a ghastly appearance, sickening even to
those whose duties called them to alleviate their
sufferings. The number of those actually found to
be dead were 8 men, 11 women, and 3 children,
and although there are only 9 cases in the hospital,
and from 15 to 20 which have been reported to the
railway authorities, and are under surgical treat-
ment at their own homes, it is much to be feared
that the actual extent of the calamity has as yet
by no means beon accurately ascertained.

the station. They had been placed on boards,
tressels, and tables, and covered with sheets and
cloths. The jury were deeply affected at the
frightfully mutilated condition of some of the
bodies. The heads and faces of some of the de-
ceased had been smashed almost to a pulp, and the
identification by feature was rendered impossible.
Upon the assembling of the jury at the Town
Hall the following evidence was taken :
The first witness was—

William Lower, who said—My name is William
Lower. I am a bricklayer, and live at Liverpool-
street, Brighton. The deceased woman whom I
have seen was my wife, and she was 47 or 48 years
old.

By Mr. Reed—l was sitting next to my wife with
my two boys in the second carriage from the end.
It was 25 minutes to 9 exactly when we left Brigh-
ton, and I remarked to my wife that we were 20
minutes late by the clock at the station. It was
an excursion train. I was going to Chatham. My
two boys were going to stop in London. I was
sitting with my face towards the engine on the
right hand side of the carriage. One of my boys
was sitting on my right hand facing me, and the
other by my side. There were nine people in that
compartment with me. I was sitting in the last
division of the carriage. I said I thought it a very
great neglect that we were so late. We did not
stop anywhere till we came to the tunnel. I did
not look out at the window to notice the signal-
man at the tunnel. I observed that the train
slackened its speed just before it got to the mouth
of the tunnel, perhaps about 50 yards. It went
about 200 or 300 yards up the tunnel before we
stopped. The first thing that apprised me of the
accident was my boy looking out, and he said he
saw a train coming, and immediately there was
a concussion, and 1 knew nothing more until I
found myself scrambling over the ruins. The car-
riage I was in was smashed all to atoms from
the back. I had a broken shin. I could not see
anything, as it was dark, but when lights came
I found myself on the top of the ruins. My wife
was covered by the ruins and quite dead when I
found her. The engine was standing up a few
feet from me, and appeared to have jumped upon
the carriage. I saw a man jump on to the engine
and let the steam off. I had been afraid it would
burst. My two boys were hurt, and one of them
came to me and I showed him his poor mother.
I helped him on the ruins, and when I
put him down he went away, and I have
not seen him since, as he is in London. My
wife was about six feet from the ground,
on the ruins, and the carriage seemed to have been
forced upon its Side, and was leaning against the
engine, which seemed to have forced its way under-
neath the carriage as it were. No one can describe
the scene in the tunnel, it was so fearful. There
were only two carriages smashed, I saw the other
train as I came back out of the tunnel, but I do not
know what injury was done to the engine. At the
time of the collision the train was going backwards
very slowly. 1 saw several of the passengers who
were dead or dying during the half hour I was there.
By the Jury—l observed the train before we
started. There was a carriage behind, but I cannot
say whether it was a break van. The train was 20
minutes behind time when we left Brighton.
By Mr. Roupell—l did not know there was a
train before me, nor did I hear the scream of an
engine. I knew nothing of the train following me
till my boy called out. I know the train did not
keep its proper time at starting, which should have
been a quarter past eight. I heard no shout to stop
the train on going into the tunnel. Just as we were
coming back in the tunnel my boy said he saw a
red flag.
Thomas Parker Durrant—l am an auctioneer,
living at Brighton. The deceased John Ingledew
was my father in law. I believe he was 69 or 70
years of age. I have seen his body lying at the
station.

Edward Comber-1 live at 29, Upper Gardner-
street, Brighton, and work in the carriage depart-
ment of the railway company. T identify one of
the bodies shown to the jury as that of Mary Gil-
lett. She lived at the Weavers' Almshouses,Wan-
stead, Essex, and was a widow, 68 years of age,
By Mr. Reed—l was not in the train.
_ _

Mr. Jesse Baillie—l am a carpet planner, and
live at 5, Gardner-street, Brighton. I identify the
body of George Westcott. He lived at 1, Church-
row, Old St. Pancras-road, London. He was 12
years old. I was in the train, sitting alongside of
the boy in the same compartment of the carriage.
The other bodies having been identified,
At this stage of the proceedings it was arranged
that the jury should visit the scene of the disaster
in the course of to-morrow afternoon, and to suit
the convenience of the legal gentlemen two o'clock
was the hour fixed, and the evidence will be
proceeded with at ten o'clock on Wednesday morn-
ing.

(From the Times.)

The frightful collision on the Brighton Line on Sunday
has but too plain and simple an explanation. There
were mistakes, it is true, on the part of the signalmen, and
one part of the signal machinery would not work. This
ought not to have been. It ought not to have been
left to a last perilous moment to discover that the signal
proper to the particular occasion—the signal, namely, that
a preceding train was in the tunnel.--could not be given
because the apparatus was out of order. Again, the signal-
man at the London end of the Clayton Tunnel, when he
was telegraphed to answer whether the tunnel was clear,
ought to have remembered that there were two trains, and
that only one had come out of his era of the tunnel. But
these mistakes are not at the bottom of the culpable part of
the affair. The culpable thing was that the trains suc-
ceeded one another so rapidly that the slightest possible
mistake, even an excusable mistake, was fatal. You have
no right to drive things so close that the least misunder-
standing in replying to an electric telegraph is at once
fatal. As far as the signal machinery goes, it appears that
though the peculiar and appropriate apparatus for announc-
ing that there was a train in the tunnel would not work,
there was the red flag, which did work, and did, as a mat-
ter of fact, stop the second train in its passage through the
tunnel; though it is true that, had the ordinary proper
signal been available, there would have been this
difference, that the signalmen would have had
confidence in his signal, whereas it was want of con-
fidence in the substituded signal which made him
suppose the second train had, not seeing it, passed
through and left the tunnel clear—the mistake which. pro-
duced the whole catastrophe. Stillthe subsequent telegram
would have corrected this mistake had not the rapidity
with which one train followed another confused the signal-
man at the other end of the tunnel, and made him send
back the answer that the train telegraphed about was out
of the tunnel, whereas it was not that train, but a train just
preceding it, which had come through. So much for the
machinery; and as for the men, though in the hurry of the
moment there were these mistakes on the part of the signal.
men, one of these very mistakes was caused by the driver
of the second train having been only" more" sharpsighted
than it was thought probable he would be, he having "seen"
the red flag, which was displayed only at the last moment,
when he was right underneath it, and therefore when it
was thought he could not have seen i t.
So we come to the too rapid succession of trains, after all,
as the real blameworthy cause of this whole misfortune. It
is obvious that if one train succeeds another so quickly that
the head of a signalman is confused, and he replies that the
train inquired after is out of the tunnel, whereas it was
another train just before it which was out of the tunnel—it
is obvious, we say, that if the trains follow each other so
quickly that the signalman confounds one train with ano-
ther, the rapidity in the succession of the trains is too
great. You depend on the telegraph as the ulti-
mate corrector of all mistakes, and its ultimatum
continues or stops the motion of the train. But if
the succession is so quick that the telegraph itself
is confused by it, and sends wrong answers, there is an end
to all security. Had the third train been later and given
more time to the signalmen, the first answer of the tele-
graph might have been corrected; the signalman who sent
it would have remembered that there were two trains of
which the passage was due, and that the second had not
passed, and would have telegraphed accordingly. But
before any mistake of the telegraph can be corrected the
third train is up, it has overtaken the second train in the
tunnel, and the terrible disaster has taken place. Or, what
would have been a bitter alternative, the second train, that
had only stopped in the tunnel to give time to the first to
move on to a proper distance from it, would have recom-
menced its motion, and ceased to block up the tunnel. But
things are run so closely that nothing but the most perfect
accuracy and precision can prevent a crash. Yet it should
be borne in mind that a signalman is not necessarily a per-
son of unrivalled and unerring accuracy of mind, that he
is capable of being confused, and that his readiness and
presence of mind should not be tried too severely. It is
very easy in a space of 20 seconds to make a mistake about
a train being one train or another train, if you have three
trains following each other almost immediately. Here are
two excursion trains leaving Brighton within ten minutes
of each other, and a parliamentary train fifteen minutes
after. This is too quick work. Your signalmen are not
pieces of clockwork, upon which harry has no effect;
they are men, whose nerves and brains are susceptible
of disorder, and who must have their time for doing
things—not an unreasonable time, but still some time.
Give them the proper intervals, and they will do their work
well enough, and distinguish times and trains rightly, but
they are not men to perform lightning operations with their

brains, and gather up an hour in a second. They are good
steady pieces of human clockwork, but human machinery
is a very different thing from the machinery which you
move by steam or by spring. They have their pace. It
you exceed that pace the pieced human clockwork becomes
disordered. The present terrible catastrophe is only the
result of having tried the heads of signalmen too far ; it has
been an experiment how much they can do, how rapidly
they can work with correctness, and they have broken
down under it.

At the same time, railway companies are not alone to be
blamed in these matters. The public answer so readily and
eagerly to the invitations of excursion trains that the com-
panies think they cannot please the public better than by
multiplying them. So they must be squeezed in any how
between other trains. The thing goes on gradually, and the
intervals get less and less, till at last a dreadful crash shows
that the power of arrangement has been tested too sharply,
and has given way. But up to the moment of the catastrophe
the process is so natural and the facilities so successful that
everybody is pleased, and nobody has any idea how very
near the edge of peril the whole system has been all along.
Quick travelling for a mere trifle is an enormous tempta-
tion to multitudes, and the more the pleasure is tasted the
more it spreads. Every reduction of price brings a whole
fresh class within the operation of the charm, and every
fresh class, of coarse, larger and more numerous in pro-
portion as it is poorer than the preceding one. Thisis the
great difficulty that the railways have to deal with. They
have to provide accommodation for customers who increase
not in arithmetical only, but a cubic ratio. They flock in
in myriads to the stations, they cram the trains by over-
flowing. Every season advances upon the last. What is
to be done with them ? There must be excursion trains.
The public must be accommodated, and railways must ex-
pand. The interval between trains is reduced from half an
hour to a quarter of an hour, and from a quarter of an hour
to ten minutes. At last there is a frightful catastrophe,
and we all of us know in a moment that the attempt has
been overdone. But the remedy will not be popular, for
all our horror at the mistake. A new taste has been awak-
ened in just the very largest class of the whole community ;
it will require great firmness to control it, and that firmness
will have to be exercised by the very power which benefits
by the fashion—the railway companies.