 The drivers knew nothing of the impending catastrophe until they got within two or three hundred yards of each other, and, as both trains were travelling at a fair rate of speed, the distance was too short to enable them to avoid a collision.The drivers stuck to their locomotives until they were just within a few feet of each other, when they jumped off.The buffers of the engines snapped, and the front of the engine attached to the train from Melbourne was smashed in right up to the funnel.