The Key West Citizen

People Standing On Narrow Platform Were Cut Down By Locomotive

HARROW, England—At least 75 persons died today in the collision of three passenger trains here at the height of the morning commuting rush. The government-operated railways in announcing the death toll said there were 130 other casualties with "more still to come."

Commuters standing on the Harrow platform were mowed down as if by a giant scythe when the third train's locomotive left the rails and plowed into two trains already wrecked.

The death toll of 75 was announced almost eight hours after the three-way collision. At that time three coaches under the main bulk of the wreckage were still to be reached by rescue workers. The crash piled coach on coach in a 50-foot heap of wreckage.

The collision involved two expresses and a commuter train.

Many of the victims had been waiting at the station of this Middlesex village, 10 miles northwest of London.

People standing on the platform (Continued On Page Five)
AT LEAST 76 PERSONS (Continued from Page One)

were cut down as a locomotive of the London-Manchester express screeched from the tracks and sheared through the waiting crowd.

Within minutes this corner of Harrow looked like a burned-out silhouette of wartime London.

A suburban train standing in the station first was hit from behind by an express bound for London from Scotland. Then, as the wreckage of this collision splattered the area, the London-Manchester express roared up from behind and plowed into the piled up coaches.

It was Britain's worst train wreck in 37 years. A dozen coaches were in a pile of wreckage in the heart of the Harrow station.

The crash occurred only three miles from headquarters of the U. S. Eighth Air Force at South Ruislip. Few airmen living there normally use the trains involved.

No reports had been received that any of them were among the dead or injured. An American passport was found in a wrecked car, but police declined to give the owner's name pending a check of the dead and injured.

"Just the same setup as the Long Island Railroad," commented Col. Alexander R. McMillan of the U. S. Third Air Force on surveying the wreckage. He said the layout of the tracks on the approach to London was remarkably similar to approaches to New York which have been the scene of Long Island railroad disasters.

McMillan came to Harrow to watch about 20 American staff surgeons and medical technicians who were rushed to the scene and were credited with saving many lives by being the first to arrive with blood plasma. The Americans are attached to the 7th Air Division and the Third Air Force. American Air Force stations at West Drayton and Bushey Park sent all their available personnel and equipment to join eight doctors and 35 medical orderlies from South Ruislip at the scene.

A giant railway crane was brought in to lift the coaches apart. A rescue official said it would be hours before the full extent of the casualties was known.

The bodies of the dead were lined up alongside the tracks. One passenger likened the scene to that of a wartime air raid. Clouds of burning steam rolled through the battered coaches, adding to the panic of passengers trying to grope their way to safety.

Many of those with lesser injuries staggered out of the station to nearby drug stores where they were given first aid.

William Ingham of Wembley, riding in the fourth carriage of the London-Manchester express, said:

"It just fell to pieces around us."

"The carriage just seemed to go into the air," he said.

"There was a crash and our coach was on the platform, or what was left of it."

A flying chunk of debris smashed the station clock, fixing the exact time of the crash—8:19 a. m.

There were repeated cries of "Stretcher" as another body or a wounded passenger was uncovered.

A Roman Catholic priest clambered over the piled-up wreckage to give the last rites to the dying.

Dozens of persons living in the neighborhood went into the station yard with trays of tea and blankets for the injured. No exact count of the injured was possible because many suffering from shock and cuts were taken to nearby homes until doctors could be spared to attend them.