THAT month, the June of 1954, there were a few accidents involving Glasgow trams. On the 15th, a day of steady rain, 30 people were taken to the Royal Infirmary after a bus and a tramcar collided at the junction of Castle Street and Parliamentary Road. On the 26th, the driver of a city-bound tram had to be freed from the wreckage of his cabin after a collision with a double-deck SMT bus in Main Street, Thornliebank. In between these two accidents came the one seen here: 20 people were injured when a University-bound No. 14 tramcar and a heavy lorry collided at the junction of Jamaica Street and Broomielaw, shortly after lunchtime. The tram was knocked off the rails; passengers said it “heeled over slightly then righted itself”, and came to a halt. Hundreds of people gathered to watch the injured being taken into ambulances, and the lorry being pulled clear by a breakdown wagon. Foot and mounted police were eventually called in to control the crowd. Fifteen days later, a double-decker bus heading for Parkhead garage applied its brakes to avoid a tramcar under the railway bridge in Duke Street. Four other double-deckers, all following closely behind, collided with each other, said the Evening Times, “like shunting railway wagons”. No-one was injured but one conductress had “a remarkable escape”: she had been standing on the platform “when it was stoved in almost completely.”
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