Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1912 — 14 DIE IN WRECK; MANY ARE BURNED [ARTICLE]

14 DIE IN WRECK; MANY ARE BURNED

New Haven & Hartford Train in Ditch at Westport, Conn. MANY VICTIMS IMPRISONED Only Three of Eleven Coaches Escape Fire—More Dead Known to Be In Pyre—Eye-Witnesses Describe Accident Naugatuck, Conn., Oct 4.—Fourteen persons are known to have been killed and it is believed that several others lost their lives when the second section of the Boston-New York express leaving New Haven at 3:55 jumped the track at Naugatuck Junction, while taking the crossover from one of the four tracks to another shortly after five o'clock last night. \ V Wreckage in Flames. The tracks torn from beneath it, the locomotive toppled over and plunged down- the steep embankment at the side of the track. Both the engineer and fireman were killed. The baggage car on the forward end of the train was catapulted out of danger, but the Pullman cars caught fire and within an hour were almost completely destroyed. Nine bodies have been taken out of the wreckage and three more can be seen, but at a late hour rescuers have been unable tb extricate them. It is almost certain that other bodies are hidden in the mass of twisted debris.

Bodies Taken From Wreck. Two trains carrying nurses and physicians were immediately rushed to the scene of the wreck from Stamford and the bodies, as soon as they could be reached through the intense heat, were removed to a nearby store. The injured were taken to nearby residences. Following is the list Of dead so far as they have been reported: Mrs. James C. Brady, daughter-in-law of Anthony N. Brady of Albany, N. Y. ’ Mrs. Carl Tucker, daughter of Anthony N, Brady. Mrs. E. P. Gavit, also a daughter of Mr. Brady. Two unidentified bodies. Engineer Clark. Fireman Moker. The injured: Mrs. James A. Garfield, Mr. and Mrs. O. L. Wade of, Indianapolis, James Apts, baggageman; Miss Marion Knight, Phillip James of Lake Forest. III.; Mrs. Phillip James. Lake

Man instantly Killed. Laporte, Oct. 4.—George, C. Wood of Stake county was instantly killed when bis (team ran away with him. No one was with him at the time of the accident A heavily-loaded wagon passed over his head, crushing his skull. The body was found by a neighbor. Forest, E. L. Hill of Philadelphia, Mr. Franklin of South Framingham, Mass.; Mrs. Anderson, address unknown; F. B. Cleveland of Brooklyn, N. Y., and J. D. Silvia, Cambridge, Mass., porters. Train Going Fifty Miles an Hour. The engine exploded practically at the same moment that It left the rails, according to eye-witnesses. The report was heard several miles distant According to witnesses the train was running 50 miles an hour when the accident occurred. Autolst Tells of Wreck. J. Leopold Spiegel, a New York merchant, and a friend were sitting in an automobile at the Naugatuck star tlon when the wreck occurred and were thrown from the machine by the concussion of the explosion. They were the first persons to reach the overturned train. They saw three young girl pupils of the Boston Conservatory of Music burn to death before their eyes after they had aided in dragging the fourth of the quartette from a window. These young women were in the fifth coach. Man Tries to Save Girls. “We heard a man crying for aid,” Sri"gel said, “and dashing in his direction found him trying to boost a young woman through a window. We pulled her through and she fell down senseless before us. He called to us that there were three more girls there and he thought he could get them out if he could'get out of the window and reach 1 in for them. We shouted that we could catch them as he drppped each one. We then saw him dive down head foremost into the smoke and fire. Then we him cry out some terrible exclamation and his white face appeared above us, grimed with smoke and with his hair all singed.

“My God!” he screamed, “they are fastened down there and are burning and I cannot get them out. A moment later he fell unconscious on top of us. We saw a band of Italian workmen bring at least twenty persons out ‘of the cars into the air.”