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    rZr ^ iTskall was fractured . The calf leg hS been cut down to the posterior tibial artery I con-Meted him in so hopeless a state that I thought I Should go to others * to whom I might be of more service I told him he would die . He took from his Si the articles I produce ( among which were 14 s . Fn silver and a ring ) . I saw four or five more people taken out , all badly hurt . Some went on to Oxford ; others I ordered beds for at this and other public houses . None of Ihese have died ; but some are not out of danger I treated sixteen whom I never saw again . 1 he dead bodies were brought here . I made this house a kind of hospital by Mr . Acton ' s advice . I remained in attendance . Nothing could exceed the attention and kindness of the towrWoole . Instead of finding any difficulty m obtaining servant

    beds , every assistance was rendered . Ihe gin in that house had given up her bed to a sick child , on whom she atten all night . Five dead bodies were brought here and deposited where the jury has viewed them . Other surgeons were called in . Late at night several came from Oxford and operated on Luckett . A medic al gentleman , named Acton , was in a first-class carnage which was smashed . He was not much hurt . lie was assisted by me in attending to the sufferers . We attended all the cases together . " The serious work which Mr . Wyatt saw " forward " was very serious , tragical indeed . Under those smashed carriages lay six dead bodies ; and several wounded . Some of the latter appeared before the coroner , and gave homely , but impressive , descriptions of the state of matters in the wreck .

    William Bolt on , of Olive-place , Camden-town , was in the carriage next to the engine . Luckett , one of the dead , was his cousin and with him . His brother also sat in the same carriage . He described the fatal overthrow . He heard a cracking and crushing of the carriages , as though something rushed in upon them ; then the carriage seemed " to come restlessly , " and he " resigned himself to bear what might come . " Then the whole " bore down as with a clap of thunder , " and he " was sawed out ;" whence , the following will show : —

    " After I had lain for some time under the carriages I became sensible , and I could talk and reason to the people outside . My legs were across another man ' s body . I could not see any lights , for I lay with my face to the ground . The man lying over me was also sensible We talked to one another and tried to persuade each other to lie as still as possible . He asked me to pull off his handkerchief , which I managed to do . I do not feel much inconvenience from sitting . I knew I was on the ground by the earth getting up my nostrils . It was quite dark . I could feel pressure across the lower felt

    part of my back and across the groin ; I no pressure about my head or shoulders . My head was fixed . There was room for me to move my hands and undo the handkerchief of the man across whom I was lying . There was no other one there to speak . I do not know what is the man ' s name , but believe he has been taken to the George . I could not myself tell how long I lay there . It was impossible for me to extricate myself . The lower part of the body was quite dead . From lying so long I was quite benumbed . I was brought to this house . I found that my limbs were not broken . I cried out that they were putting my legs too close together . "

    James Smith , an accountant , also residing at Camden-town , gives a companion picture . He was in the same carriage as Bolton : — " Before the carriage was overthrown I was thrown from my seat on my back . All was confusion . More than three hours elapsed before I was extricated . I spoke to the poor soldier as he was lying across me . There was a crush , and I felt an immense weight on my body , so that I could hardly breathe . There was great pressure on the lower part of my body . It was quite dark at that time . Before the accident it was getting dark . I had not space to move . I could not move my hands ; my body was completely jammed in . I could

    just move my head . I did not once lose my recollection . I was certainly for three hours in that position . I knew that it was the soldier who was beside me , for I felt his epaulettes . There was no other soldier in uniform . His legs and the lower part of hia body were thrown across my body . I presume he died very quickly . I heard him groan after that . I did not hear him again . I spoke to him , and then I found that he was a corpse . His head was leaning on my right shoulder ; his face turned towards me , so that had he breathed I should have known . I heard him groan just after the crash , as we were thrown down ; after that I heard him neither spcuk nor breuthe . "

    James Smith , also , to his great honour , told the following touching anecdote : — " I am anxioua to speak of a boy who came to my assistance , for I think my life was saved by him . When the wood-work was sawn away so that my face could be uenn , a wet handkerchief was put down to me . The boy crept through the aperture which had been made , and held down a wet handkerchief me , with grrut danger , 1 believe , to himself . Without that I should have fainted . I have Hince heard that the boy ' s name is King , and thut he is the son of a widow in Biccater . " A juryman , who had given hi » handkerchief for the purpose , Htated that the boy had not used a stick but hid hand .

    Tin * proceedings of the first day wero principally for thu identification , of the bodies . At the end ol the Bitting the jury proceeded to view the place where the fatal event had occurred . Much of the tttbrin hud been removed , and the line hud been repuircd bo thut tho UBual trallic tthould proceed ; but ft © phattoed . tjngine , \ hfi brok en gu . i « 4-

    run straight on to Oxford . This accounts for the speed at which the train dashed up to the station—a speed which rendered it impossible for the driver to obey the signals to stop . According to his own account he did slacken speed in obedience to the customary signal , but that was nothing more than usual in passing a station . Carrier , the enginedriver , whose son , a promising lad of fifteen years of age , was killed in the smash , was examined on Tuesday and the most important point in his evidence was his answer to the following question : —

    iron , the rail twiste d into the shape of an enormous hook , and the large wooden post left standing , with part of its surface ground away , remained to denote the violent character of the accident . The fact was clearly established at the examination on Tuesday that the officials at the Bicester station expected the train would stop there ; it was as positively ascertained that the Oxford excursion trains usually ran through ; and that on this occasion the engine driver had had no orders to stop at Bicester . He had taken in water at Winslow and intended to

    " From your experience as an engine-driver , can you form an opinion as to the cause of the division of the train?—My firm belief is , that at the time I came to the points they were open , and the engine passed on to the straight line , and immediately , from a cause which I cannot explain , I think the points were closed , which threw the carriages off the straight line on to the siding , and , by so doing , at the speed at which the engine was coming , it would naturaliy draw the carriages off the siding towards the straight line . On their coming off the rails , the axleboxes would break by the wheels coming in contact with the sleepers . That would put the wheels out of order and cause the carriages to break .

    One going in front and another behind they would be pushed one after another . The foremost carriages would be overturned by the pressure of the other carriages . What drew the engine off was the change of direction . The coupling-iron of the engine and tender and of the tender aad guard ' s carriage were broken . It was the jerk when these were broken which did the mischief . " Carrier was positive that Wilmot , the man at the points , had hold of the handle , and that the engine passed the points on to the straight line , when Wilmot , loosing the handle of the points , turned the rest of the train , including the tender , on to the

    siding . This , of course , is most important evidence . Wilmot , if this account be relied on , must have changed his mind . First he appears to have thought that it would be better to send the train straight through , and for that purpose acted on the points . Then he suddenly loosed them . But Harris , who had charge of the gates on the Aylesbury road , which at that point crossed the line , asserts that he did not see Wilmot touch the points . In connection with this subject , the evidence of Mr . M'Connell , superintendent of the locomotive department , must be taken into consideration . He came down on the

    night of the catastrophe : — " After some time we got the line cleared , and opened for the traffic . I afterwards went to examine the engine , which I found embedded in the ballast close to the station-master ' s house . I saw a rail twisted in the driving-wheel . The rails which had been misplaced wore put right before I arrived . On Sunday morning we tried the points by running an engine and some waggons over them . We found that , after running the train over the points from Bletchley towards Winslow , the points did not shut completely . The points in question are weighted to lead into the siding , and must be opened to admit a train on to the straight line . Believing that

    their inaction might have arisen from the dirt and dust of the previous night , I desired them to be cleaned and oiled , after which they acted properly . I have heard that the left hand point , coming from \ Vin 8 low , was bent ; if it was , the injury had been repaired before I saw it . I observed also that the end of the tie-rod connecting the points had been recently in the fire . I have since heard that the nut attached to the screw had been knocked ofF by the accident . " He thought that an engine proceeding at 20 miles an hour would have safely passed on to the siding had the points been " right . " His explanation of the accident was as follows . He said in reply to a qtiestion from the Coroner : —

    " Of course , any opinion I can form on this matter must be derived from appearances observable on the raiiH , and the position of the engine and carriages after the accident . Consistent with these appearances , the nioBt probable cause , and , indeed , the only one I can reconcile to my own mind , is that the engine inunt have passed on to the main or struight line ; that the pointH , from Home cause which I cannot explain , seem to have been then altered ; and that the tender must have taken the points into ihe down siding ; that they continued to run in them * positions for a abort diuluncc . —say a few feet—the engine still keeping to the main line , until the tender came into contact with the end of the " guard " or " check rail "

    and then , springing up , a blow was given to the engine which caused it to diverge and leave the rails , toiuhig up the outer ruil with it , and dragging the Under into the poBition in which it waa found . The carriages , putting the engine with tlwir own momentum , and pcrhupu , ulno , receiving a blow or some obstruction from the trader , were thrown off tho line , and rushed forward against the gate-post on tho down side of the railway , a massive puce of timber weighing 18 owt ., and firmly embedded BL-vernl leet in the earth , on Btriking which they were broken up , and fell upon each other , down the small embankment at thin portion of the line , in the positions in . wJW ° MMey wer « f , o d , JfWW «( 0 flWrti < m I have «< , ! ,-

    lected , and from observations I have made , such is my opinion . I cannot reconcile the appearances with any other explanation . " William Kirby , a porter at the Bicester station , was examined ; but his evidence only allowed that he had , acting on the orders of Mr . Bruin , station-master , put up the " red arm , " indicative of caution ; that only one excursion train had stopped at the station on a Saturday night , and that then information of the intended stoppage had been telegraphed .

    The examination was continued oa Wednesday , several servants of the company being examined . James Cobb , the guard of the train , asserted that he saw the signal to slacken speed ; that the signal was obeyed ; and he also declared that he saw the white light signal at the station , which means all right . A declaration was put in , signed by W . Miller and John Stow , purporting to be a declaration from Benjamin Hood , to the effect that the white light signal was " distinctly visible . " But Blencowe , the night watchman , whose duty it is to light the signal lamp , deposed that he was not there until after the accident , and that when he arrived the lamp was not lighted ; and James Sirett , a porter at the station , was sure there was no lamp lighted " when the train sighted the station .

    Mr . Bruin , the station-master said : — " I have power to stop any train , although not publicly announced to stop . I have that power under my orders from Mr . Bruyeres , superintendent of police on the line . " He considered the signals quite sufficient to stop any train , even if coming at the rate of from twenty to thirty miles an hour , within 200 or 300 yards of the station : — " When I heard the beat of the engine first I thought it was coming too fast to stop at the station . That was before I could see it . I called to Wilmot to wave his red flag . Wilmot heard me , as he attended to my instructions . I don ' t know whether Harris heard . I am sure there was no light at the signal . If there had been , it

    could not have been a white light , but a green one . I saw the train coining . It was going by far too fast—very rapid ; as I considered much too fast to pass any station , whether it was to stop or not . I called out to the porter Kirby to put up the station signal for a full stop . Both lines were right . I cannot form a conjecture as to the cause of the accident , unless dust had got into the points . The points are very good points . Wilmot is a very good steady man . I never had the slightest cause to complain of him . He has been here since the opening of the line , and had previously been sent to Wolvertou to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the system of points and other matters . If there had been horses or two or three men passing with trucks , I have seen dust collect in the points and prevent their quite closing . "A Juryman : They are very dangerous then ?

    " Mr . Bruin : There is no doubt there ought to be great caution , as the auxiliary signal-post shows . I never knew an instance of these signals being disregarded . I saw the engine jump just at the points . It is my opinion it jumped just on the points . If the points were not quite . closed there was the danger . The speed was 34 or 35 miles an hour , as far as I can judge , when the train came to the points . I have known a train coming at as great a rate come on to the station . I should see no danger in it . In such a case the train would not be able to stop at the station . Whether the points had been right for the straight line or the siding , there was nothing to prevent the train from passing through . There is no other signal for stopping a train but the danger signal . The caution signal only means to drive slow ; there is another Bignal to stop . There is no regular time for lighting the signal-lamp . "

    Mr . Dockray , resident engineer of the Buckinghamshire Railway , said he hud never known the pointa out of order . It was requisite that the points should be held for the train to go straight through to Oxford . " The points should be held open till all the train hud paaaed . A tender might be thrown oil" if the pointa were let go after the engine had paHHed . " On being asked to what conclusion he had conic as to the cauae of tho uccident , Mr . Dockray waid : —

    " I am of opinion that the engine had passed the pointa when cloned tor the straight line . The tender hud taken the siding , and all the carriages followed it ; that , the courses of the engine und tender diverging from each oilier , the couplings were broken , and the engine left the line and went where it was found . Tho tender would bo off the rails , und the carriages striking aguinst the tender diverged in an opposite diiectiou from the engine . The connecting-rod at the points has a shoulder which would have kept the points shut after the nut and screw were oil'if it had been held by the man . " You can only account for the diversion by supposing the points let gi > after the engine paused ?—Yes . Tho nut being broken would be the result of the heel-chair breaking .

    " / Supposing before the train came to the points the nut and ticrcw were broken , and the tongue of the point left at souk ; distance from the rail , in it poHsible that c-ho engine by its impetus could have passed the points and continued over the straight line ? It might . I am qiuto autislied the pointH were closed for tho utr / w ^ nt llnc - f \ have no doubt at all the engine went , on tin ; mum rail . He vvus then asked whether ho hnd known n similar accident at the tmnw station , He hnd . The accident alluded to wn . i precisely tho same on u uuitU flwdc w tJ »» t of Atoiuniuy , A ixuwengar

    Untitled Article

    of his Sept . 13 , 1851 . ] gftg iLffl&fV . 863

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 13, 1851, page 863, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1900/page/3/