Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1911 — WHAT TO DO IN A WRECK [ARTICLE]

WHAT TO DO IN A WRECK

Veteran Railroad Traveler Gives Some Advice That Is Well Worth KeepIng in Mind. When the tumult began a passenger stood up and shouted at the top of bit voice: “What in h —’s the matter?” repeating the unanswered querry several times. I knew what was the matter, but had no leisure to explain, and just dropped upon the floor and grasped the frame of my seat and held on,, taking the jolts as rigidly as possible. Hat racks, hand baggage, seat cushions, splintered head lining and miscellaneous articles began to fly about, and I found the seat frame afforded comfortable protection from thb missiles that damaged some exposed limbs. The tumult could not have lasted half a minute, but it seemed a long time | till the end came by the car turning over with a terrific jolt. At that instant the man whd had shouted so vociferously: “What’s the matter?” was shot through the window like a huge torpedo. Most of the people who had been on the upper side came down in heaps when the car turned over. I was on the lower side, and settled softly upon the bead lining when the car came to rest, says a writer in Railway and Locomotive Engineering. I had been in a similar accident once before, and knew not only what to do, but kept my attention upon what the other passengers were doing. Most of them stood up or sat without holding fast to the seats, so that they were thrown about by the plunging and jolting of the car. Then a mass of human beings seemed to drop from the higher to the lower level whfk the car went over. Many of them were badly bruised through bein*/ pitched about, pains that might have been avoided had they dropped upon the floor and clung to the seat frames. It is difficult Instructing persons how to do in case of the derailment of a train they are riding in, but sound advice Is to drop upon the floor, preferably in the aisle, or cling to the seat frames. ‘The impulse to stand up and howl should be restrained.