Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 8 July 1920, page 29


THE ROYAL TRAIN

SENSATIONAL DISASTER.

TWO CARRIAGES OVERTURNED.

PRINCE'S NARROW ESCAPE.

Bridgetown, July 5.

The Prince's tour through the South West was interrupted at about 2.44 this afternoon by a sensational accident, in-volving the derailing and overturning both of the Prince's special car, and the minis-

terial car.

It was only by an amazing piece of good fortune that the Prince and all the other occupants of the two cars escaped with their lives. One shudders at the thought of what might have occurred had the train been travelling at a greater speed.

As it fortunately happened, the Prince and his travelling companions, in spite of

being hurled over an embankment while sitting comfortably in their compartments, escaped without even a scratch, with the two exception of Surgeon-Commander Newport and the Minister for Works (Mr. George). The former sustained a nasty cut on the knee, and the latter, besides being badly shaken suffered from a cut face.

The astonishing occurrence took place a few minutes after the royal train had left the Jarnadup station, en route to Bridge-town. A popular demonstration had just been accorded the Prince by the people of Jarnadup, and the train was moving through the bush country between Jarna-dup and Wilgarup, about ten miles from Bridgetown, at the rate of about twelve miles an hour, when an unusual grating sound attracted the amazed notice of the occupants of the royal and ministerial cars, which formed the rear of the train. A few seconds later the passengers in the for-ward cars heard a couple of extraordinary bumps. The alarm was raised, and the train was quickly brought to a standstill.

Cars on their sides.

A remarkable spectacle, which made the

blood run cold, met the eyes of the rail-way officials and the Press representatives

on hastening from their compartments, to ascertain what had occurred. Over a

small embankment, not more than five feet

high, the two cars bad been precipitated and they were lying on their sides, with the roofs facing outwards in a ditch. A

truly amazing thing had happened. Some of the carriage wheels had become de-railed, and the royal and ministerial visi-tors sitting snugly in their compartments, had been hurled down the embankment,

banged against the toppled roofs of the car, and left to struggle as best they might for freedom, until the remaining passengers and railway officials could re-lease them. With the two exceptions men-tioned, they were released, a little shaken

but unhurt.

This sensational experience was shared by the Prince, Admiral Halsey, Lord Mountbatten, Lord Claude Hamilton. Sur-geon-Commender Newport, and Colonel Grigg in the royal car, and by the Pre-mier (Mr. Mitchell), the Minister for Works (Mr. George), and the Honorary Minister (Mr. Willmott). The scurrying rescue parties from the other carriages were prepared for anything in the way of unprecedented horrors when they reached and examined the overturned cars. A feeble cry for help was heard from the ministerial car, but there seemed to be an ominous silence from the royal compart-ments. Rescuers, with axes and any other implements that could be hastily procured climbed to the top of the overturned cars, burst open the windows, and feverishly pursued the work of extrication. But to

their astonished relief, nothing but dis-plays of hilarity were noticeable when they

looked through the windows of the royal

car.

Smiling and Smoking.

Notwithstanding that he had been hurled violently against the side and roof of the car, as it toppled over, the Prince was reclining amid the wreck of the costly com-partment, smiling and smoking a cigar "Hurt!" he cried in response to anxious in-quiries through the overhead windows "Bless your heart, no! And I'm glad to say the whisky flask is not broken either." The relief which this heroically flippant reception afforded to the party above must

be left to the imagination.

The Prince, Lord Mountbatten, Lord Claude Hamilton, Admiral Halsey. and Surgeon-Commander Newport were as-sisted out in turn and the latter's cut knee was the only evidence of injury. Meanwhile others had released the Premier, the Minister for Works and Mr. Willmott from the ministerial car. Mr. George was bleeding at the mouth, but the others were unhurt. With very little delay the railway of-ficials got into communication with the nearest station by means of an emergency telephone set attached to the track side wires. Bridgetown was thus soon acquainted with the disaster. Within a few minutes after the Royal train minus the damaged cars, which with a third car that had been partially derailed bad to be left be-hind, left for Bridgetown.

The scene of the disaster presents a much uglier sight than the actual personal re-sults would suggest. For a distance of about a hundred yards leading up to the spot where the carriages were overturned the permanent way has been ripped and torn up, and the rails twisted into all sorts of fantastic shapes. Although off the line and overturned the cars do not appear to be irreparably damaged. The most of the Prince's travelling gear and some of the rich carriage fittings were saved from the wreckage.

The disaster was apparently caused by the rails spreading in consequence of the effect on the embankment of the recent rains. The officials, however, expressed themselves as amazed at the occurrence since the Royal car was only recently sent

over the track

The Royal train reached Bridgetown at

4.30 pm. where the greeting from the popu-lace was the more hearty because of the knowledge of what his Royal Highness had been through.

With the Premier in the same compart-ment at the time of the smash were Senator Pearce and Sir Talbot Hobbs. The Premier, when the crash came, was dozing in a corner. He awoke with a terrífied start and all three were bundled pell mell against the side and the roof of the over-turned car with the luggage toppling over them. The Premier's elbow was precipi-tated through a window. The occupants were easily extricated through the windows of the carriage and they took the situation with philosophical calmness. The Mayor of Perth (Mr. Lathlain) was standing on the landing platform of the Ministerial car and was thrown to the ground. There was no need for medical attention to anybody in either carriage.

"This is Fun."

The Prince and his companions were all laughing and joking about the occurrence when they emerged from the interior of the broken compartment. At the time of tho accident his Royal Highness was writ-ing a letter in his saloon and he and Admiral Halsey were thrown violently against the top and sides. His Royal Highness was remarkably cheerful when Colonel Peck and others hauled him up from his brief imprisonment. ''This is great fun," he said, laughing, "but I knew somehow this bally train would go off the line." Lord Mountbatten was in a gay laughing mood in spite of his severe shak-ing. He was joking about the situation when he was first seen floundering about the debris of his compartment, and he subsequently expressed himself as de-lighted with "the funny experience."

From an examination of the scene it is apparent the two cars turned turtle almost simultaneously. Two factors alone pre-vented an appalling tragedy. The first was that the train was travelling at a slow speed and the second was that "owing

to the couplings being unusually strong the cars, instead of being hurled violently over were let down comparatively lightly. Happily the cars with the struggling occu-pants inside were not dragged any distance after they toppled over. The whole inci-dent however, was full of the most awful possibilities, which were obviated only by miraculous chance. The train was a double header with seven carriages, the first five being occupied by different officials and Press representatives and the last two by

the Royal party and the Government repre-sentatives.

Before the Royal train reached Bridge-town the officials of the pilot train, which preceded the Prince's train, were notified of the accident and at Bridgetown while the welcome proceedings were in progress the old ministerial car was transferred from the pilot to the Royal train for the accom-modation of his Royal Highness and staff. The remaining occupants of the train were accommodated as circumstances permitted. The rearranged train is now on its way to Bunbury, via Donnybrook

The railway authorities are disposed to attribute the accident to the theory that this light agriculural line after the recent heavy rains was overtaxed by the double-header with such a heavy length of car-riages. The interior of the ministerial car caught fire shortly after the Ministers extrication, but the fire was put out with a bucket of water. A remarkable fact, which shows how fortunate were tbe occu-pants of the cars, is that at the time of the capsize the Commissioner of Rail-ways (Colonel Pope) was actually going forward to give orders for the speeding up of the train as it was a bit behind schedule time. What had made the train slow down just before was a stray cow on the line -a providential interference on the part of the cow.