Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1916 — 30 DIE IN N. Y. C. WRECK [ARTICLE]

30 DIE IN N. Y. C. WRECK

Three Trains, Including “Twentieth Century Limited,’’ Piled Up by Double Smash. ’Thirty persons were killed and 4 0 or more were Injured in a wreck which Occurred at Amherst, Ohio. 3 7 miles west of Cleveland, at about 3:30 o’clock Thursday morning on the New York Central road. Two passenger trains, known as section Nos.. I and 2 of the Chicago-Pitts-burgh’ were proceeding along bbout one mile apart through a dense fog when section No. 1 received a signal to stop at Amherst. The wreck occurred as the train was gathering speed after the stop, section No. 2 plowing through the rear coaches and killing or injuring most of the occupants thereof. Some of the coaches of section No. 1 were toppled over onto one of the three other tracks at this point just as the “Twentieth Century Limited” was approaching, and the latter train was derailed except for the three rear coaches as a result of the collision with the overturned cars. The car in which many persons were killed burned like tinder. The stork was blamed in part by Lake Shore railroad officials for the terrible wreck. According to a hasty investigation made by General Superintendent A. S. Ingalls, the first train which stopped through a blunder on the part of the tower signal man, whose wife gave birth To a baby on Sunday and who had been practically without sleep since then. Just how he blundered has not been made clear, but it is believed that he set the block signal from white to red, forcing the first train to come to a halt.