Terrible Railway Accident.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 280, 30 March 1889, Page 4

Terrible Railway Accident.

Aiebbible railway accident, attended by very serious loss of life, occurred on the morning of the 3rd instant, on the line between Brussels and Luxemburg, close to a small station called Gronendael, about 15 minutes* run from Brussels. The train, which left Brussels for Namur at half-past nine o’clock, ran off the rails, and dashed itself with terrific violence wainst the pillar of a footbridge which there crosses the line, oversetting the pillar and bringing down the bridge on to the top of the forepart of the train. The wreck presented an appalling spectacle. The violence of the shock caused the engine, tender, luggagevan, and the first fonr carriages of the train to rebound. They were literally smashed to atoms. Even the iron framework of the doors was bent and twisted in such a manner that the survivors were obliged to escape as best they could by the windows. The train was, as usual on Sundays, crowded, and the ground was strewn With dead and dying. Men and women who in the first shock thought they had escaped, found, upon trying to oaeape, that they were more or less imprisoned in the wreck, and added toeir cries to the groans of the dying. Many of them had their legs and feet cut off. The engine driver’s body lay headless. One young man who escaped saw his affianced bride killed by his side. An officer of the Marine was among the killed. Among the wounded in the hospitals is a little gwl of five years, who was so mutilated that It was impossible to identify her. She was not expected to live many hours; all she did being to cry, "Papa!" "Mamma!” No fewer than 14 persons were taken out dead from the wreckage of the carriages, and as many as 50 injured, several of them mortally. Dr Hauben, who was travelling by the (train, jumped from hie carriage at the first shock. Upon reaching the ground and finding himaelf uninjured he commenced to jump with joy, among the mass of injured petsona round him. The moment of temporary folly soon passed, however, and bo immediately set about doing Ms best to alleviate the suffering of his unfortunate travelling companions. Other persons who had wen more or lees injured thereby rushed frantically through the forest of Soignies, ana some of them reached Brussels with their olothee in tatters, and their hair dishevelled. Help came at once from the officials and the people in the neighbourhood of Gronendael, and as soon as the news of the catastrophe reached Brussels a relief train with a number of doctors and persons in authority was despatched to the scene. At the Hospital of St. Jean alone eight amputations were made. Almost all the sufferers were injured in the le»s.