File:Pinera Station Tragedy(GN13781).jpg

This image shows the aftermath of the event. Trains resume travelling through the station while rescuers watch on from the side. One of the greatest tragedies in South Australian railway history occurred on the night of 31 January 1928, when six men died, buried in a land slide while demolishing the tunnel to make way for Overway Bridge, on Main Road Belair. The bridge is near the present day Pinera Station, previously known as Overway Bridge Station. Conditions were difficult for rescuers who worked through the wet and stormy night, in the light of hurricane lamps and car headlights. Robert Lafferty of Coromandel Valley was one of the men killed. The accident is reported in The Advertiser 2 February 1929; "There was a fog which clothed the scene with a mantle of softness---" The injured man "chatted with the ambulance men but seemed unable to say anything about his sensations during his terrible experience. However his injuries were so serious that he died in the hospital at 4.10am" J. Callen, Then & Before - Glimpses of the Belair Line in the Age of Steam 1883-1969, self published, Adelaide, 2002

Refer to p. 36 "Then and Before - Glimpses of the Belair Line in the Age of Steam 1883-1969" Janet Callen.