‘ You’re in the wrong seat’ — the words that saved a life
On the 70th anniversary of NZ’s worst rail disaster, a new Herald podcast recalls the tragedy and lessons of Tangiwai. In episode three, Hamish Williams talks to surviving passenger John Mahy and asks whether we looked hard enough for answers in the aftermath
John Mahy has been photographed, filmed and interviewed for most of his life. He’s featured in books, documentaries and even museums — all because he survived New Zealand’s greatest rail tragedy.
On Christmas Eve 1953, Mahy, then 15, and his 17- year- old sister had mistakenly taken seats in a second- class carriage near the front of the express train from Wellington to Auckland.
They didn’t find out they should have been seated in the first- class carriages at the rear of the train until they reached the Waiouru station.
“When the conductor came around he asked us why we were seated in the wrong carriage. We weren’t going to move but then we thought we may as well finish the rest of the journey in style, so why not?”
Ten minutes later the train would plunge off the lahar- damaged bridge into the Whangaehu river, killing 151 people.
Mahy and his sister, unaware of what had happened, were in the rear first- class carriage that came to a halt, safely on the tracks.
“There was no sudden bangs or anything like that, it was just as if we were shunting. After being stopped for a quarter of an hour, one of the conductors came through and informed us all that there had been an accident.”
The carriage in front of them had fallen into the river. Mahy had escaped disaster by a few metres.
It wasn’t until searchlights from the nearby Waiouru Military Camp arrived that he saw first- hand the horror of what had happened.
“It was quite horrific. You knew damn well there wasn’t going to be any survivors — well, not many survivors anyway.”
Mahy did not know it then but he would come to represent the story of survival from the tragedy, along with his son, Calum Mahy. As a professional stonemason, Calum’s company Stone Creations NZ has produced the memorials at the Tangiwai site.
Episode three of the podcast also explores the inquiry into the Tangiwai disaster, which decided the accident was an unavoidable tragedy caused by natural forces and sheer bad luck.
We ask if that conclusion was too hasty.
Tangiwai: A Forgotten History is available at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The series was made with the support of NZ On Air.