Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1899 — SIXTEEN ARE KILLED. [ARTICLE]

SIXTEEN ARE KILLED.

Bad Fmash-Up on Lrhivrh, Twenty tlilei from New York. Sixteen dead and forty-eight injured are the results of a wreck that took place on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Two passenger trains, each crowded with its human freight, going in opposite directions, rounded a curve on the same track and crashed into each other at full speed. The scene of the collision was near West Dunellen station, on the Lehigh Valley road, abd about twenty miles from New York City. The accident occurred on a quiet country spot just at the beginning of a long curve. It was converted into a scene of death and disaster in only s few seconds. The victims of the wreck, dead and dying, were scattered about the tracks, some free from the debris and others pinned beneath it. Those who escaped injnry were so overcome by the disaster that it was some time before any united efforts were made to relieve the suffering and secure outside aid. When the work of rescuing the injured and the removal of the bodies of the dead began the scene was like that of a battlefield. There were no appliances at hand and the bodies had to be carried out on seat cushions, planks and anything that came handy. The locomotives were crushed out of shape, while several of the cars were reduced to kindling wood. A freight wreck in the morning, just east of the Bound Brook station, was primarily the cause of this horrible catastrophe. It blocked the east-bound track and disarranged the train schedule on the Lehigh Talley road.