Keith SHUTTLEWORTH [11891] ⁵³⁸²

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The Burrowa News (NSW : 1874 - 1951) Fri 2 July 1948 Page 1
Tragic Scenes In Early Morning Train Smash
Three Carriages Of Mail
Telescoped Near Galong
Four Killed and 19 Injured:
Ambulances Rush To Scene
Four people were killed and 19 injured, some seriously, when the South-West Mail, travelling from Sydney to Narrandera, was derailed four miles from Galong, near Rocky Ponds, at 5.15 a.m. on Wednesday morning last.
THREE CARRIAGES WERE TELESCOPED DOWN AN EMBANKMENT
AND SCENES OF CHAOS DEVELOPED AS PASSENGERS,
SOME OF WHOM HAD BEEN SLEEPING AT THE TIME OF THE
ACCIDENT, STRUGGLED TO FREE THEMSELVES FROM THE
TANGLED WRECKAGE.
Doctors and nurses from nearby towns were rushed to the scene of the derailment, where darkness added to the confusion. Ambulances from Boorowa, Young, Yass and Goulburn took injured people to Harden Hospital. The disaster was the worst in New South Wales since September, 1926.
The disaster occurred about 5.15 a.m., when a 38 Class engine, drawing six carriages and two vans, toppled over a 30-foot embankment. There were 130 passengers on the train.
It was amazing that so few people were killed. The scene was an undescribable one of confusion. The two front cars were smashed into matchwood, while the third car was catapulted over one of the cars in front.
The ironwork of the third car was twisted as if made of putty.
ON DOWN GRADE.
The derailment occurred as a result of the engine leaving the rails on a down grade. The engine toppled over the embankment, dragging two cars with it. The smash occurred at an isolated part of the district, in darkness, and there were scenes of confusion as terrified passengers tried to escape from the carriages.
Improvised lights to assist rescue workers were provided by railway workers. Many linesmen were rushed from Harden and Galong and the work of extricating passengers began before dawn.
Senior Constable Marshall, of Harden, was one of the first to reach the scene of the disaster. 'HORRIBLE THING.'
It was a horrible thing, he said. 'The wreckage from carriages was spread over a wide area, and passengers luggage burst open.'' 'Many women, 6ome accompanied by children, walked aimlessly about the frost-covered grass until they were assisted by residents.
The track was strewn with mail ( bags, sausages and foodstuffs flung from the vans. ;
'DRIVER DID NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.'
The driver of the train, Ernest Nolan, of Goulburn, said afterwards, that he had no idea what happened. 'At one moment,' he said, 'the train was travelling normally, and the next it was flying through space.'
The driver was found by the fire man, George Jeffries, also of Goulburn pinned under a heap of coal from the upturned tender. Jeffries (who was unhurt) dug him out. Driver Nolan's only injuries were cuts over the right eye, which necessitated two stitches at Harden Hospital. He was able to leave the institution after treatment. .
First news of the crash came when a passenger named Power, with blood streaming from his face, walked across a paddock and waded through a creek to a house 200 yards from the crash. He roused a station hand, John Devine, employed on Camden Springs Station, owned by Miss Knight-Gregson.
He said to the man in the house: 'Get help; a train has just crashed. There are dead and injured everywhere.' Devine and Power ran to the home of Mr. Donald Collins, of Beechwood Station, and they went by car to Harden, 11 miles away, to get help. Some passengers were scalded by | steam escaping from the overturned engine.
Uninjured passengers had carried the killed and those injured who had been extricated to a paddock. They had lit a fire, and helped the doctors, Dr. R. D. Heggaton, Dr. Neil Joseph, Dr. H. S. Moran, all of Harden, with the injured by the light of the fire as the dawn broke.
One passenger told , rescuers he was asleep when the smash occurred. He was jerked forward and his head crashed through a carriage window. Heavy luggage fell from a rack above him, and pinned him to the floor of the carriage, where he lay for almost an hour.
RAIL TWISTED.
Examination of the wreckage showed a rail had been ripped from its bed and was tangled in the locomotive bogey. Telephone wires were torn down in the crash. Only two cars at the end of the train did not leave the rails.
The second serious rail accident this month, the South-West Mail tragedy was the worst train smash in N.S.W. since September, 1926, when 27 were killed at Murulla , near Murrurundi.
There have been ten smashes this year, but no fatalities occurred prior to Wednesday's.
SERUM SUPPLIED.
The Railway Department flew blood plasma to Harden by a specially chartered plane, which took an injured passenger, Kenneth Jones, 36, of Canley Vale Road, Canley Vale, to Sydney after receiving preliminary treatment for a broken thigh at Harden Hospital.
Those killed were: -
MRS. JANE MATILDA BURNS, 64, of Leeton.
KEITH SHUTTLEWORTH, 26, Wattle Street, Leeton.
STANLEY JAMES WALSH, about 22. of Narrandera.
ARTHUR CHURCHIN, 61, of Captain's Flat or Braidwood.

The Murrumbidgee Irrigator (Leeton, NSW : 1915 - 1954) Fri 2 July 1948 Page 2
Leeton People Killed In Tragic Railway Accident
Many Narrow Escape's
SURVIVORS' GRAPHIC STORIES
THE disaster which befell the south-west mail train in the darkness of a cold winter morning near Harden on Wednes day, had a tragic interest for the people of Leeton as two well-known residents lost their lives in the wreck and a number of others were seriously injured. Other residents of Leeton had narrow escapes from death or injury in the accident which is numbered among the worst that has occurred in New South Wales for many years.
The Leeton persons killed in the accident were:-
Mrs. Jane Matilda Burns, of Carrabeen Avenue.
Mr. Keith Shuttleworth, aged 26, of 2 Wattle Street.
THE INJURED
The injured were: -
John Harold Bambett, aged 44, of Carrabeen Avenue, a fractured leg.
John Alfred Bamblett (his son), aged 23, same address, abrasions to head and back and shock.
Shirley Bamblett, daughter, of same address, aged 7, fractured arm.
Frances Bamblett, daughter, aged 9, shock and abrasions.
Jeannette Harris (15), cousin of the Bamblett children.
Don Thompson, recently appointed Gardener at Yanco Agricultural High School, broken ribs.
Ossie Grose, well-known Australian Rules footballer, fractured shoulder and abrasions. Mr. Bart Nulty, president of the Leeton Club and the captain (Mr. Les Main), journeyed to Harden by taxi yesterday, to see the injured player.
The late Mr. Keith Shuttleworth would have been 26 years of age to day and it is a sad coincidence that he will be buried on his birthday, 'the body being brought back to Leeton on to-day's mail train. He was engaged to be married to Miss Winifred John son, of Manilla, near Tamworth, and the wedding was to have taken place next November. Mr. Shuttleworth had gone to Sydney to make arrangements in connection with his forth coming marriage. He met his fiance just after his discharge from the army, while she was on a visit to Lee ton. Miss Winifred Johnson, accompanied by her parents, left Manilla for( Leeton, on receiving news of the sad event, on Wednesday night.
The late Mr. Shuttleworth was born in Melbourne and before coming to Leeton, had been a resident of Tocumwal. He had been a resident of Leeton for the past eleven years, and had been engaged in the carrying trade and working on the rice and wheat. In the year 1940 he joined up with the A.I.F. and served overseas in various theatres of war including Malaya and New Guinea.
He is survived by his father, Mr. Thomas Shuttleworth and the following brothers and sisters: Mr. George Shuttleworth (Berrigan), Mrs. Thom as Balcombe (Finley) , Mrs. S. Chambers (Melbourne) , Mrs. Hunter Boyd (Leeton) and Mr. Frank Shuttleworth (Leeton). The funeral of the late Mr. Keith Shuttleworth will move from the Methodist Church, at 3 o'clock this (Friday) afternoon.
Mrs. Jane Matilda Burns, who was killed in the accident, is the mother of Mrs. John Harold Bamblett. On visiting Mr. Bamblett's home in Carrabeen Avenue yesterday morning, a representative of the 'Irrigator' found nobody at home. He was informed by a neighbour, that all the members of the family had gone to Harden when they received news of the death of Mrs. Burns, and the injuries sustained by her son-in-law and his children. An obituary of Mrs. Burns will be published in next issue of the 'Irrigator.'
John Harold Bamblett, 44, of Carrabeen Avenue, Leeton, who was ad mitted to Harden Hospital, with his son, two daughters and a niece (all injured), told a graphic story of the crash. 'I was in a compartment with my wife, five children and a 7-year-old grandchild, Pearl Marshbank, who was going to stay with us at Leeton,' said Mr. Bamblett.
'My wife had been holidaying in Sydney with the children, and I had gone down to bring her home. The children were asleep on the two seats. My wife was nursing our 31 months' old baby, Dorothy. I was stretched out on the floor, with a water-bottle for a pillow. All of a sudden, it seem ed as if the end of the world had come. There was a terrific crash. The carriage just splintered to pieces, and I was showered with suitcases and with broken glass from soft drink bot tles. I tried to drag my daughter, Shirley, out of the wreckage. I could not move my leg. It was pinned down by broken timber. My son, who was in another compartment shouted, 'I'm all right. I'll help you dad'.
WIFE, BABY UNHURT
'John lifted the wreckage from my leg. I tried to move, and the leg collapsed under me. I could not rise and others had to carry me away. My son kept on shouting 'Where are you, Mum? Are you all right?' There was no reply, but finally my wife was dragged out from beneath the wreck ed carriage roof. She was unhurt.
She was still nursing our baby, and she also was unhurt. Everything we had with us - there were seven portmanteaus - was lost. My wife even lost her handbag and she is now without a penny. Soft drink bottles were all broken. I had two bottles of wine and they were intact. After I was dragged clear, I was given a drink of the wine and it helped me before the ambulance men arrived.' Mrs. Bamblett said she was badly shaken. With her sister, Mrs. Harris, and her children, she waited outside the hospital for news of her husband and her three children.
LEETON WOMAN DESCRIBES EX- PERIENCES IN WRECKED TRAIN
Mts. R. Bailey, of Jarrah Street, who accompanied by her daughter, was a passenger on the ill-fated train, but luckily escaped with shock and bruises, gave a graphic account of the accident when interviewed, at her home on Thursday morning. She was travelling in a corridor carriage immediately behind the two vans which telescoped and rolled down the embankment. 'It was about five o'clock in the morning and pitch dark,' said Mrs. Bailey. 'In my compartment of the corridor carriage was myself and daughter, Mona, and an airforce man and a girl whose name I don't know.
The others were all asleep, but I was awake. My daughter was sleeping by the window on the left hand side and I was on the other end of the seat on the right hand side. The train was running along in a normal way, when all of a sudden there was a terrific swerve and instantly I realised that the train had left the rails. I remember calling out that the train was off the line and the next thing a heavy suit case in the rack above me crashed down on my head. Then with a sickening motion the carriage tilted sideways to an angle of 90 degrees, and I went sliding down to the other side of the carriage. We all slid down that way and landed there in a confused and struggling heap.
When we had sorted ourselves out the airforceman cried out to me, 'where is your daughter?' He thought that she had been catapulted out of the window. We could not see her for the time being, but eventually she was located in a corner under a heap of suit cases, rugs, etc. Fortunately we all escaped without injury. We clambered along the corridor of the carriage which was still at an angle of 90 degrees, and peered out into pitch blackness. We could see nothing. One of the most peculiar sensations of the moment was that created by the deep silence that settled over everything after the terrible crash and clattering that had been going on after the train leapt the rails and the engine rolled down the steep embankment, carrying some of the carriages with it. 'We knew that there had been a terrible accident and that somewhere down there in the darkness there must be mangled bodies and perhaps dead and dying people. But everything was as silent as the grave. We heard no shrieks of terror or groans from the injured. The only sounds we heard after a little while, were a baby crying, and then an old lady who was in one of the compartments behind us, became somewhat hysterical. , But as it turned out, she was un injured and quite safe. Presently in the darkness down in the gully be heath the embankment, we saw a flicker of a torch and the light from a flare, such as are used by engine drivers when they are making an examination of their engine in the night time. The rescuers were getting to work, but those were the only lights that they had until the day began to break, and then in the grey light of the dawn, we saw a terrible spectacle that made us shudder. The huge locomotive and its tender were lying at the foot of the embankment in a gully. Beside it were the remains of a railway carriage that had been literally smashed into little pieces, and here the rescuers were at work releasing and attending to the injured. We could see people lying on the ground covered with blood. In the daylight we could see that the occupants of our corridor car had had a most for tunate escape from injury. Our Carriage had hit a huge rock when it swung off the line, breaking the coup lings that attached it to the van in front of it. That big van and the carriage in front of it again, had crashed down the embankment and become telescoped. We were able to walk right out on to the huge rock that had stopped our carriage from plunging headlong down the embankment, and from there we had a clear view of the terrible scenes of wreckage below us, and the work of the rescuers, who were splendid. Unless you saw the actual scene, you could form no idea of the difficulties under which the rescuers worked. The gully into which the engine and the carriages immediately behind it plunged, was much steeper than the newspaper photographs give any idea of, and the ground was of the roughest kind imaginable, dotted over with great boulders. The ambulance cars had to make long detours over rough country to get at the scene of the crash.
It was a bitterly cold morning and great bonfires were lit from the wreckage, to warm the survivors of the carriages that had been wrecked. Passengers in the other carriages which had not toppled over the embankment, were told to remain in them. Hot coffee was served to everybody, and later a relief train took us to Harden and then on to Leeton.'
Mr. A. G. Enticknap, M.L.A., sent a telegram yesterday, expressing condolence to the bereaved; also extend ing sympathy to the injured and those anxious about relatives in the train accident.
Messrs. Barlt Nulty and Les Main got back to Leeton at 1 o'clock this morning, after visiting the Harden Hospital. They found Ossie Grose had suffered more injuries than they had expected. In addition to a broken left shoulder, Ossie's right shoulder was also very sore. He was also cut about on back of the head and had facial injuries, and his right eye was closed. As he was unable to move in bed and not possible to move, they could not bring him back as planned.
However the visit of the two representatives of the football club cheered his up immensely. Mr. Crose in relating the accident said that he was in the very first compartment next to the engine. Young Jack Bamblett was in the same compartment. He felt the bump bump as the carriage left the rails and then the awful noise of the crash, when he was thrown in a heep with his back to the engine, and received a couple of slight burns from escaping steam, and was soon soaking wet with water.
He wandered about injured and cold for about three hours. Young Jack Bamblett suffered more than was first reported. He is a very sick lad in the hospital.
All speak of the remarkable escape of Mrs. Bamblett and the baby. The roof of the carriage was piled on top of Mrs. Bamblett and they could just see her feet sticking out. When asked if she was injured, Mrs. Bamblett was able to say no. Don Thompson is in the same ward as the Bambletts and Grose.
Mr. Hunter Boyd, who visited the scene of the rail smash, said it is a terrific mess, and it is a wonder any of the passengers in the first carriage escaped alive.