Dreadful accident on the London and Birmingham Railway

Ink drawing of an interior of a carriage with passengers, one flung half way out of the window with caption 'Dreadful accident on the London & Birmingham Railway. Five carriages flung on their broadside & shattered. One Gentleman received a frightful cut in the scalp, a Lady was much hurt in the back - &c, &c'.

This is one of a series of cartoons satirising the early railways. The image shows the interior of a carriage in the aftermath of an accident. A woman can be seen halfway through a smashed window. A man has been flung to the floor, and a child can be seen looking on in horror. It seems that despite the severity of the accident there were no fatalities. The illustration is attributed to ‘C.A.S’. It is possible that C.A.S refers to Charles Alexander Saunders who worked for the Great Western Railway until 1863. The artist and the date of creation remain unknown.