Almost exactly twenty years later on 4 June 1943, its death toll was surpassed in the Hyde railway disaster, which claimed 21 lives.
One report said that authorities were forced to await news on rain-swollen areas of the Waikato through which the express would pass, and the decision to go was not made until 10 pm.
[2] As the locomotive rounded a curve just south of Ongarue at about 5.52 am the next morning, it struck a landslip caused by heavy rain.
[3] Mr A. Stewart, the driver, said that he had shut off steam at the top of a rise and the train was proceeding downhill under its own weight.
Stewart thought the train could have cleared the slip safely but for the "huge boulder", which was carried along for two or three chains (44–66 yards, 40–60 metres) before the engine derailed.
Hobson confirmed that the presence of the boulder in the slip was primarily responsible for the telescoping of the second-class carriages, in which all the casualties occurred.
The inquiry heard evidence from 51 witnesses and found that there were good grounds for concluding that the slip was falling as the train approached, and that boulders obstructing the track were the cause of the disaster.
But when the new Minister of Railways Gordon Coates heard of the crash and looked at the file, he ordered the urgent replacement of gas lighting on important passenger trains, starting with the overnight Main Trunk expresses.
In 1925 at the derailling of the Napier Express at Opapa, lighting gas was again ignited, and the commission investigated the accident wanted the upgrading expedited and completed as early as possible.