Thomas Black Connor was a station manager in the Kyeburn area when he boarded the Dunedin train in Ranfurly on June 6, 1943. The train was running a little late and the driver ran it a little fast. The result was a crash on a curve within a cutting and 21 deaths. Thomas' son John was also one of those killed.
RAILWAY DISASTER
18 Persons Dead; 40 Injured
TRAIN LEAVES RAILS NEAR HYDE, CENTRAL OTAGO
(P.A.) DUNEDIN, June 4. Ranking as the worst of the comparatively few serious accidents in New Zealand railway history, a disastrous derailment on the Central Otago line this afternoon caused the death of 18 passengers and injury to at least 40 others.
The train left Cromwell at 9.10 o’clock this morning for Dunedin, carrying about 100 passengers. It had reached the curve in the cutting three miles on the Dunedin side of Hyde, about 1.45 p.m. when the engine, which was travelling at speed, left the track and crashed on its side. The first carriage ran past the engine, telescoped, and was smashed. The remaining five carriages piled up behind the engine in a tangled mass of wreckage. More than half the passengers on the train were either killed or injured.
All possible aid was immediately arranged by Dunedin railway officials and rushed to the scene from the Ranfurly, Middlemarch, and Waipiata hospitals, while three fully-staffed ambulances, two doctors, and a number of nurses were dispatched from Dunedin. Two railway buses and two corporation buses were also sent to bring to Dunedin any passengers able to travel
KILLED The names of those killed known so far are:—
DUNCAN BROWN LINDSAY, of Wedderburn.
THOMAS M. CHISHOLM, of Cromwell.
MRS W. WHITE, 46 Harper street, Timaru.
A BOY, aged five, son of Mrs White.
A BOY, aged six months, son of Mrs White.
THOMAS B. CONNOR, of Kyeburn.
FRANCIS ROBERT KINNEY, of Hyde.
CHARLES ROBERT McKENZIE, of Alexandra,
VIVIAN CARSON, of Ranfurly.
DUNCAN MACDONALD, of Patearoa.
M. TYRREL, of Mount Albert. Wanaka.
CHARLES DOUGLAS, of Kyeburn.
ROBERT CARR, aged 80, of Patearoa.
Unidentified among the dead are:— A youth aged from 16 to 18 years. A middle-aged man with a rail ticket from Alexandra to Timaru. A boy, aged about four years.
INJURED Among the injured, the following have been admitted to the Dunedin Hospital:—
Frederick Christopher, of 250 Main South road, Dunedin, aged 22, head injuries.
Miss Dorothy Robinson, of Broughton street, Dunedin, aged 24.
Mrs Marguerite Ward, of Hyde, aged 25, both legs fractured.
Mrs Ward’s child, slight injuries.
James McBride, care of J. Mee, Lauder, abrasions and shock.
Mrs Margaret Hansen, of Melmore street, Cromwell, aged 61 years, fractured ribs.
A. R. Wright, of Eskvale street, Musselburgh, aged 30 years, bruised hip and abrasions.
Also injured was the engine-driver, J. P. Corcoran, who suffered a badly fractured arm and severe scalds, and was admitted to the Ranfurly Hospital. The fireman, S. G. Hollowes, was badly scalded. A guard named Pratt also suffered scalds.
Heavy Show Traffic. The train comprised six carriages and carried about 100 passengers, including many coming to town for the Winter Show and for the races at Wingatui to-morrow.
No horses were on the train.
It is officially stated that the derailment occurred at 1.45 p.m., and the first information was received at Dunedin at 2.9 p.m. by telephone from Waipiata, the call being sent by a man who walked a mile from the scene of the accident.
Immediately after the accident contact was established by telephone with the railway authorities at Dunedin, and a breakdown train was at once assembled and dispatched to the scene.
Few details were available tonight, but from information to hand the magnitude of the disaster and the well-organised dispatch wherewith the emergency was met have become apparent.
A tragic incident was that in which an elderly woman was rescued, but lost her husband, a daughter, and two grandchildren among the killed.
In another instance a woman was rescued after being pinned under the wreckage for five hours, during the whole of which time she remained conscious. She was pinned by the legs, and the rescuers were unable to set her free.
Injured Taken to Hospital Immediately after the accident doctors were called in from all neighbouring centres, and local residents as well as ambulance and railway staffs gave valuable assistance.
The injured were removed to the Ranfurly Hospital, where about 32 were accommodated. A few were sent to the Middlemarch Hospital, and a few more to Dunedin.
Early reports gave the number believed to have been killed as 13, but it was stated officially at 10.30 p.m. that the dead numbered 18. The wreckage was then reported to have been cleared. As the bodies were extricated from the wreckage they were removed to the Hyde Hall, where they were placed in the charge of the police and of the ambulance authorities for identification.
Uninjured passengers had begun to arrive in Dunedin before 10 p.m., and some of the more seriously injured reached the Dunedin Hospital shortly after 10 p.m.
Passengers who were in the second carriage from the front were able to escape through the windows, and most of them were not seriously injured. They stated that for about three minutes before the accident occurred they felt the train swaying. They also said that because of the isolated position where the accident occurred about an hour and a half elapsed before rescuers began to arrive. In the meantime uninjured passengers in rear carriages rendered first aid. They paid high tributes to the great rescue work performed by Mr Philip Banon, a member of the Merchant Navy, who recently returned from a Pacific base.
Another passenger, travelling in the last car but one said that as the accident occurred this carriage appeared to go up in the air and then lurch forward, but no one was injured. Immediately after the accident one carriage finished its course about a chain ahead of the engine.
This witness said that many of those buried in the wreckage were badly mangled, and before they could be extricated, jacks had to be used.
A woman passenger said that the first carriage was reduced to a shambles. It drove right past the engine and the second carriage was jammed tight up against the engine. The third carriage was piled up on an embankment.
There was a pathetic scene outside the Railway Road Transport depot in Dunedin as bus-loads of passengers began to arrive shortly after 10 p.m. Relatives and friends had gathered in large numbers, many of them having had no word as to the fate of those for whom they were waiting. Anxious people watched each bus arrive and sought for sign or word of expected relatives or friends. Many of the arrivals were in a dishevelled state, with clothes torn and dirty from their ordeal in the wreck and subsequent assistance.
Hyde, the scene of yesterday’s disaster, is 64 miles north-west from Dunedin, on the Otago Central railway. It is situated at the foot of the Rock and Pillar Range and is one mile from the Taieri river.
MESSAGE OF SYMPATHY FROM GOVERNMENT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 4. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Eraser.) has requested that a message of the deepest sympathy from the Government and himself be conveyed to the relatives of those killed and also to those injured in the accident which occurred this afternoon on the Otago Central railway.
The sympathy of the department and himself has been expressed by the Minister of Railways (the Hon. R. Semple).
From preliminary information received in Wellington, he said, a number of people had lost their lives and 40 others had been injured. As soon as word was received, immediate steps were taken to send ambulances and doctors to the scene of the accident, and local officers also immediately left Dunedin to render whatever assistance could be given.
PUBLIC INQUIRY (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 4. The Minister of Railways (the Hon. R. Semple) announced to-night that the Otago railway accident would be the subject of a public inquiry as provided for in the Government Railways Act. The personnel of the Inquiry Board would be announced as early as practicable.
DISASTER OF 1923 ONGARUE DERAILMENT RECALLED The disaster near Hyde recalls the derailment of the North Island Main Trunk express at Ongarue 20 years ago, when 14 people were killed, three died from injuries, and 30 were injured. On July 6, 1923, the south-bound express ran into a slip a mile south of Ongarue, three carriages being badly telescoped and the engine practically buried in debris.
The derailment was caused by a three-ton boulder falling from the hiliside right in front of the engine as it turned the bend, too late for the driver to take action. The engine and the mail van went over on their left sides, and the three, carriages piled up behind.
Fourteen passengers were killed when the carriages telescoped, and another died on the afternoon of the disaster. Two more seriously injured passengers died two days later. -Press, 5/6/1943.
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| Evening Post photo, courtesy of the National Library. |
HYDE DISASTER
APPORTIONMENT OF DAMAGES
In the Supreme Court yesterday morning, before Mr Justice Kennedy, apportionment orders were made dealing with damages recovered from the Crown in three of the claims arising out of the Hyde railway disaster. Mr J. P. Ward appeared in support of all the applications. In the case of Duncan Burns Lindsay, deceased, of Wedderburn, the sum of £2750 recovered was apportioned by giving £200 to each of two daughters and £l50 to a son now of full age, the balance, after payment of costs, to be paid to the widow. In the case of Duncan Macdonald, deceased, formerly of Patearoa, in which the sum of £2063 had been recovered as damages, the court approved of the suggestion that £1000 be set aside as a class fund for the four children, and the balance, after payment of expenses, allotted to the widow.
In the case of Thomas Black Connor, deceased, the sum of £2675 had been paid in settlement on the widow’s petition of right, and the court approved of the suggestion that the sum of £125, expenses incurred by the widow, should be refunded to her. After payment of legal costs, one half of the balance is to be held by the Public Trustee as a class fund for the three children, the remainder to be paid to the widow, subject to its being used to repay the mortgage on her present home. -Otago Daily Times, 9/8/1945.
