Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1902 — FIFTEEN KILLED INTROLLEY WRECK [ARTICLE]

FIFTEEN KILLED INTROLLEY WRECK

Runaway Car Rushes Down a Steep Grade Near Gloversville, N. Y. TWENTY-NINE ARE INJURED V Motorman Loses Control and Is Unable to Apply Brakes —Fire Breaks Out on Telescoped Cars and Adds Panic to the Horror. Two trolley cars crowded with passengers collided on an electric railway near Gloversville, N. Y., and fifteen persons were killed and twentynine injured. For a distance of four miles north of Gloversville the Mountain Lake railway, an electric road, connects Gloversville with a popular place of resort and picnic ground. As it was the Fourth of July the place was crowded with pleasure seekers. The cars were filled with people coming home from the grounds. The road makes a steep ascent from Gloversville to the resort, rising 1,000 feet to the five miles.

Two cars crowded with persons who were returning home from the resort started down the grade toward Gloversville only a short distance apart. In some manner the motorman of the second and rear car lost control of it and it dashed ahead down the grade in spite of the brakes and rapidly approached the car preceding it. Cars Telescope. The two came together with a crash so violent as to completely telescope the cars, killing and mangling the occupants. After the collision the cars tumbled over into the ditch at one side and one of the cars started to burn. Aid was asked from Gloversville, and conveyances of all kinds went at once to the place of the wreck to carry the injured. It was raining furiously, which added to the difaculty of reaching the place or receiving any further news. Ten bodies, mangled beyond recognition, were brought into Gloversville, where the injured were also being taken. The latter are being cared for at the Littaner hospital. Among the victims there are more women than men.

City Official Hurt. There were many Gloversville business men among those on the cars. The only known dead are Mrs. Edward Bard and daughter. S. C. Wood, city recorder, was so seriously injured that he cannot live. Both of his legs were frightfully mangled and his back was broken. There is one hospital in Gloversville—the Lattauer hospital, a gift from Congressman Lattauer, and as fast as the dead and injured were received they were taken there. Runaway Car Injures Twenty. Twenty persons were seriously injured in a runaway trolley car near Boulder, Colo. The car wa3 crowded with persons returning from a celebration and ran away down a mountain.