Rose Alma Shields (1928) and Ettie Irene Shields (1929) -25/2/1948

ENGAGEMENT

HAMILTON — SHIELDS — Mr and Mrs R. Shields, Tay street, Invercargill, have pleasure in announcing the engagement of their second daughter, Rose Alma, to Dempster Carr, eldest son of Mr and Mrs J. D. Hamilton, Humber street, Oamaru.    -Otago Daily Times, 22/4/1947.

At Least Five Dead, 20 Badly Injured

EXPRESS TRAIN DERAILED

BLENHEIM, Wed. (P.A.). —The south-bound main trunk express was derailed between Seddon and Blind River, about 20 miles south of Blenheim, today. It is known that five are dead and at least 20 badly injured. It is feared that the casualties will be much higher. The train was derailed at a curve in a cutting, the locomotive being badly damaged and the driver and fireman seriously injured.

The first five cars of the train remained on the lines but the right side of the third carriage was torn out and the remaining four cars telescoped. Nearby settlers worked feverishly to extricate the dead and injured from the train.

Doctors were on the scene about midday, together with railway gangers, and a start was made in evacuating the injured by cars, trucks and ambulances to hospital.

Doctors and nurses were rushed from Blenheim, and ambulances called from Blenheim, Picton, Kaikoura and the Air Force.

There were 110 passengers on the train, which comprised an engine, seven passenger cars, a guard’s van and an extra waggon for luggage and mails.

The train left Blenheim at 10.40 a.m today.  -Northern Advocate, 25/2/1948.

Photo courtesy of The Marlborough Express/Stuff website.

Home After Wedding

BLENHEIM, Fri. (P.A.). —The two sisters, Misses Rose (22) and Ettie Irene Shields (24), of Tay Street, Invercargill, whose bodies have been identified as victims in the Seddon train disaster, travelled from Invercargill to Blenheim to attend the wedding ot their cousin, Mr R. Sim, last Saturday. 

On Monday they came to Nelson to see relatives, returning to Blenheim by service-car on Wednesday morning to catch the express for the south. 

They were daughters of Mr and Mrs R. Shields, of Invercargill.

The boy who was killed has been definitely identified as Stephen Henry James Warmin, aged 4, of 31 Torlesse Street, Avonside, Christchurch. The boy's parents both suffered injuries. “Words cannot express the appreciation of the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) and the Government of the services given by everybody at the accident,” said the acting-Minister of Railways (Mr Haekett) yesterday. “This applies especially to settlers who provided food, blankets, sheets and bandages even before any request was made.”

The remainder are making satisfactory progress and there is now nobody on the danger list. It is expected that in the next few days the discharges will become progressively larger, leaving only those with fractures, burns and severe lacerations requiring treatment. 

Those discharged are: Miss Frances Black, Christchurch; James Brooks, aged six, Blenheim: Mr Rangi Wehipeihana, Ohau; Mr Conrad Blythe, Alexandra; Jon Findlay Aitken, Kurow; Mrs Elizabeth Evans, Renwick. 

One of the most seriously injured victims at present is the driver of the engine, Mr Joseph William Gurr. aged 29, of Christchurch, who is suffering from extensive burns. 

INQUIRY SOON Today's south-bound express pulled out from Blenheim on schedule, to be the first passenger train to pass over the scene of the smash. The train carried a full complement of passengers. Among them were several who were injured on Wednesday and who were discharged from hospital this morning.

Mr Hackett had a special word of appreciation for the doctors, nurses and staff of the hospitals, and for those who made conveyances available to bring the injured to Blenheim. It was all a remarkable demonstration of what the community would do in an emergency, he added. Nobody had spared time, effort or expense in giving whatever assistance was within their power.

LINE CLEAR By the use of equipment which included a 40-ton crane on a special break-down train, bulldozers and tractors, the litter of wreckage has now been cleared. This was accomplished early yesterday afternoon and today normal services on the line were resumed. Since the first bulldozers and tractors were requisitioned, and with the arrival of the break-down train from Christchurch, miracles of salvage have been performed at the cutting where the disaster occurred.

The acting-Minister of Railways (Mr Hackett) announced that a commission of inquiry will be opened as soon as possible at Blenheim.

The chairman would be Sir Francis Frazer, but the other two members of the commission have not yet been appointed. Mr Hackett added that the wrecked engine was being left in its position at the scene of the crash until technical experts complete their examination and until it is inspected by members of the commission.

More than 50 men worked all night under acetylene flares at the tremendous task of cutting the twisted debris clear of the lines. As each section was cut apart a big crane lifted it clear, and early yesterday there remained only one carriage to be removed.

By 2.30 yesterday afternoon the line was again operable and the first train passed over the section, a heavily laden goods tram with perishable cargo from Blenheim to Christchurch. The wrecked engine of the express still lies at a crazy angle against the bank of the cutting, but well clear of the line.

An attempt will be made to lift it during the week-end. Six of the 36 injured in the disaster have been discharged from hospital.  -Northern Advocate, 27/2/1948.

Photo courtesy of The Marlborough Express/Stuff website.

TRAIN DRIVER GURR APPEARS IN COURT

(P.A.) BLENHEIM, June 12. The preliminary hearing of evidence before justices of the peace began in the Police Court of charges of manslaughter against Joseph William Gurr, driver of the south-bound express which crashed near Seddon on February 25. 

Gurr faces five charges of manslaughter, the first in connection with the death of Gwendoline Rose Cresswell and the second relative to the deaths of Kathleen Margaret Flyger, Ettie Irene Shields, Rose Alma Shields, Stephen Henry James Warman, and Ronald Spencer Hawkins. 

Erl Lortie, a former Railways Department platelayer who was a passenger on the train, said that soon after the train left Seddon he made a complaint that it was travelling too fast to make curves. “Then I felt a jolt and saw a cloud of dust. All I felt at the back of the train was two or three short jolts and I then reached out and pulled the air brake.” 

Later, witness said there was another railway man in the carriage and he went to pull the emergency brake but witness beat him to it. 

Witness, who said he had had experience in several countries as an enginedriver, stated that none of the express trains on which he was a passenger had travelled at anything like the speed of this train. 

This evidence was taken because witness intends shortly to leave for America. 

Further evidence will be given, probably by 30 witnesses, in Blenheim starting on June 28.  -Gisborne Herald, 14/6/1948.

JURY BLAMES RAILWAYS DEPARTMENT FOR SEDDON SMASH: DRIVER ACQUITTED

(P.A.) BLENHEIM, July 10. The cause of the Seddon railway disaster on February 25, when six passengers lost their lives, was due to inefficient, administration of the Railways Department, according to the verdict of a jury in the Supreme Court trying the driver of the train, Joseph William Gurr, on charges of manslaughter.

The trial, which commenced on Tuesday, ended at 9.30 last night, after 30 witnesses had been called on behalf of the Crown, including several departmental technical experts. The jury retired at 4.45 o’clock yesterday afternoon and returned at 9 p.m. to inform Mr. Justice Stanton that it thought it would reach an agreement within half an hour.

His Honour granted the extension and the jury returned at 9.30 with a verdict of not guilty and putting in the rider mentioned. When the Grand Jury returned a true bill on Tuesday, it presented a rider to the Bench that in the interests of public safety instruments to determine speed should be installed on railway engines.  -Gisborne Herald, 10/7/1948.

Invercargill Cemetery