TRAIN CRASH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 267, 9 October 1933, Page 4

TRAIN CRASH.

PLUNGE OVER BRIDGE. “CRESCENT LIMITED” WRECKED. At least 40 people were killed in the hurricane which swept the eastern coast of America through nine States from Cape Cod to South Carolina in one night and early morning at the end of August. Damage was estimated at more than £3,000,000. The worst accident of the storm befell tire New York-New Orleans “crack” express, Orescent Limited. Two raihvaymen were killed and 24 passengers injured, five critically. Torrential rains had caused the rails to part on a bridge near Washington, and the bridge itself to sag. As the express tore across the bridge it was derailed. The weight of the train precipitated the engine and eight coaches into the muddy stream. Fortunately, the water at that point was only about waist deep, otherwise most of the passengers would have lost their lives. As it was, the engine was practically submerged in mud, and the driver and fireman were killed instantly. A third man in the engine cab was sinking into the mud when Mr John Wise, a New York attorney, who had kicked his way out of another coach, saved him. A further serious train accident was averted at Belleville (New Jersey) by a 15-year-old boy, Allan Butler. Seeing from the window of his home that a telegraph pole had been blown across the track, lie ran out, seized a red lantern, and stopped a crowded passenger train in the mck of time.