Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1895 — PLUNGED TO DEATH. [ARTICLE]

PLUNGED TO DEATH.

MOTOR CAR OASHES THROUGH A DRAW AT CLEVELAND. Many Persona Drowned—Precipitated IOD Feet Into the Water—Motorman Blames the Conductor for the Accident—The Latter Among the Dead. Fifteen Bodies Recovered. In Cleveland, Ohio, a south-bound Jennings avenue trolley car, packed with men, women and children, plunged through the open draw of the Central viaduct at 8 o’clock the other night. It shot Into space with the rapidity of a bullet from a gun. For one brief moment it remained poised in the air. Then it turned over on its forward end and plunged headlong 100 feet down into the dark waters of the Cuyahoga River. One wild shriek came from the interior of the car, which was cut off as the car struck the upright piling below. There came a crash of splintering wood and shivering glass and then all was still as the shattered car, with its load of human freight, beneath the waters of the river. FiTteen bodies have been recovered and identified. The motorman, “Cap” Rogers, and two passengers, aware of their impending fate, leaped from the car just as it readied the abutment. The rest of the passengers and the conductor had no warning until the car launched out into space and took its awful plunge. With one exception they were either dashed to death by contact with the piling or were drowned as the car slid off into the water. The exception was Patrick Looley, who in some manner extricated himself from the wreck and was picked up by a passing tug. He was in a frightful condition when rescued. His skull was fractured and he was injured internally. Ilis awful experience had rendered him almost childish and he jabbered like an idiot as he was conveyed to the hospital. Got the Signal to Go Ahead. Rogers, the motorman of the car, was arrested at his home, 1497 Cedar avenue, and was held in SS.<XKJ bail to await the result of the coroner’s inquest. When taken into custody he said: “The conductor went ahead and turned the switch, giving me the signal to come ahead. I supposed that everything was all right and did not notice that the draw was open. I suppose I was deceived by the fact that the electric lights in the rear car did not go out when we passed the cut-off in the current. When I discovered that the gates to the draw were closed, 1 jumped from my car, falling on the edge of the bridge and barely escaped rolling over. « The bridge was open to nllow the passage of the tug Ben Campbell and her tow, the lumber barge Abram Smith, through the draw. Danger signals were set, and the gates were down. The bridge had swung partly open when tho car approached. There was no slackening of the speed until foot passengers on the bridge shouted a warning to the motorman. Then he seemed to make some slight effort to shut off the current, but there was no diiuiuuition of speed.