The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-28 00:00:00

LAMENTABLE AND FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAI
EIGIIT LIVES LOST' AND NEARLY MEN

PASSENGERS

)READFULLY INJURED

READING, FRIDAY NIGHT.—One of the most fatal and
1 accidents it has ever been our lot to record occurred
between six and seven o'clock to the luggage
Western Railway, which left London at

train, on theGre

half-past four o'cloi
gons, two trucks,

and tender, with thirty-

I the enb
the whole of whom w(

less in-
ssed on

jured, and eight killed on the spot. The train ,
through Slough and Twyford, where it arrived shortly after
six o'clock, and when about half way between that station
and Reading a slip of earth took place to a very conside-
rable extent just at the moment the engine and tender
were passing. This threw the carriages off the rails, the
engine running into the side of the cutting. In one mo-

ment the carriages containing the passengers weze over-
whelmed by the heavy
.luggage waggons behind, and the
most lamentable and fatal results ensued.

The trucks containing the passsngers were crushed between
the luggage waggons and the tender, and scarcely one of the
unfortunate travellers escaped without the most serious and
dangerous injuries. Some of the carriages were upset, and
others jammed between the hindermost waggons and the en-
gine and tender.
The cries of the maimed and wounded, and the shrieks of
the dying, at this moment, it were impossible to describe. It
was, at once, a scene of destruction and horror of the most
lamentable and heart-rending character. Despatches were
instantly sent to Reading for medical aid, and several profes-
sional gentlemen were shortly on the spot. It may be con-
sidered most extraordinary that neither the engineer nor the
stoker received the least injury. Considerable time elapsed
before the unfortunate creatures could be extricated from the
fragments of the broken carriages. Eight were found dead,
and the whole of the remainder more
_or less injured.

An inquest upon the bodies was held this evening, before
Mr. May, one of the coroners for Berks, and adjourned till
the afternoon of Monday next. At present nothing has been
adduced in evidence in any way to attach blame to the rail-
wax company. _ _ _ _ _

Sixteen persons, consisting of eleven men and five women,
were conveyed to the county hospital at Reading, in various
vehicles, which were despatched to the scene of the fearful
calamity, where they were most humanely attended by Mr.
F. A. Bulley, Mr. May, and Mr. Morris, 'surgeons to that
institution.

The following is a description of the injuries they have sus-
tained :

1. A man; with his skull dreadfully fractured, upon whom
the operation of trepanning was immediately performed.
2. Shoulder joint dislocated.
_...

3: Foot dreadfully crushed
removed.

A portion of the bones were

A man and woman with their am

5. Three cases of concussion of the spin
6. Head severely injured.

Two men with b-roken ribs

The wounds of five others, which were not of so serious a
nature, were dressed at the hospital, and the parties sent on
by the next train, in first-class carriages, by the Great
Western Railway Company.
The sufferers are chiefly composed of working men, prin-
cipally stone-masons, who were proceeding to Cheltenham,
Gloucester, and Bridgewater. It is not expected that any
will be able to leave the hospital for a month or six weeks.
From a quarterly ticket found upon the person of one who
is dead, he is supposed to be a dissenting preacher named
Jabez Cler.

The body of a respectably-dressed mechanic, which was
crushed between one of the carriages and the tender, was
nearly severed.

It appears that the engineer, (who, along with his assist-
ant, jumped off the engine the moment the catastrophe oc-
curred,) had the precaution to shut off the steam, thus
preventing the explosion of the boiler, which, under the
circumstances, must otherwise have inevitably taken place.