Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1896 — OVER FORTY DEAD. [ARTICLE]

OVER FORTY DEAD.

FLYING EXPRESS CUTS EXCURSION TRAIN IN TWO. 1 1 Awful Disaster Occurs nt a Crossing Near Jersey City—Reading Express Catches a West Jersey Excursion Broadside-Sixty Are Injured. Scores Are Killed. A Hying express train on the Reading and Atlantic efiy Railroad crashed into a West Jersey Railroad excursion train at the crossing of the tWo roads Thursday night. At least t’prty people wete killed outright and about sixty iiijured. Of the killed twelve were wpmen. twentyfour men and four children. The crash was the most, disastrous in the history of eastern railroad traffic. The accident was tl;e result of a collision between tile 5:10 p. m. express train from Philadelphia over the Reading and Atlantic City Railroad and an excursion of Red Men from Bridgeton, N. J„ and vicinity, returning from Atlantic City, over the West Jersey Railroad, at the crossing of the two roads a short distance out of Atlantic City.

At the second signal tower the tracks of the two roads cross diagonally. The Read- • iiig train was given the signal, but it either failed to work or the speed of the, express was too great to be cheeked in time. It caught the ' excursion train broadside and plowed through it, literally cleaving it in twain; The engine of the Reading train" wits shattered to pieces. Every car was jammed to its fullest capacity. , As. soon as the news reached Atlantic City the utmost consternation prevailed. Relief trains were dispatched to the scene, loaded with cots and bearing, staffs of surgeons. As fast as the bodies were re.covered .tluiy Tyere carried into the. local hospitals and undertakers’ shops. A general tire alarm wi»s sounded, and the department profnptly responded and aided in the work of digging for the victims. The worst fears were realized as the vigorous work of the relief gangs neyealed the awful extent of the disaster. The first. Reading relief .trajn bore into the city twenty-seven mangled corpses, men, w'oihen and children. ’1 he next train, not an hour later, carried fifteen of the maimed and wounded, and two of these died soon after reaching the city.

Hospitals Overtaxed. As train after train way hurried to the scene of the wreck and came back with its ghastly load the-sanitarium which does duty as the city hospital quickly found its capacity overtaxed. Meanwmle others of the dead and injured were being carried, to the private hospital at Ocean and Pacific avenues. Edward Farr, engineer of the Reading Tr.'nn—was-kilkaUoutrigiit,.ASAvjis another road, matt whs Tpde on the engtHWlllt him. This man saw the collision coming and leaped from the cab an instant before tpe crash. Almost, at the same instant the engine cut its way through and eaught him directly in its path. His body and that of Farr were found under a heap of debris, but the engineer lay it) what remained of-tire cab and his right hand still grasped the throttle; lie had been faithful inrttrdv.ttlr-a Hd-met-it-AU-lusupast The fireman on the train had leaped a few seconds before and escaped with trifling injuries. Not Known Who Is to Blame. The excursion train was ynade *up" of fifteen cars, the foremost of which was a baggage ear. This and the next two coaches caught the fall force of and were utterly demolished. What reniained of the third car was tumbled into n ditch at the roadside. The responsibility for the accident cannot now be fixed. Charles C. Ry nick, of .Bridgeton, who was in the excursion party, was in one of tl)e rear cars. "When vFe saw that a col--14siou- was_umcvoldable,” .he said. “t In> scene in our ear was tefritic. Wvmen fainted and men rushed in mad panic for the door. But it came almost before we had time to think. -One ear was cut right in two and the lower portion of it lifted bodily from the track and tumbled over. The roof of one of the cars fell in a mass and everybody in that ear was buried under it. It simply dropped on top of the people. I don't know who is to blame. When wo were about two miles out from Atlantic City, hi. J.. we came to a stop out dir the meadows and stayed there for several minutes, but I do not know why. I think there must have been fully eighty or 100 killed. The only person with me Was my 0-year-old son, and he was not hurt,” Fourteen of (he injured are reported to have died at the’sanitarium. Superintendent I. N. Swigard. of the Philadelphia and Reading Company, places the nurpber of dead at thirty-seven and the injured at about the same number. William Thurlow, she operaforirttho block tower situated at the crossing, has been placed under arrest by order of the Coroner. »

« Scene at the Fatol Place. An Associated Press reporter was on one of the first relief trains sent out by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The train was in charge of a number of railroad officials and Prosecutor Perry of Atlantic County. It drew up in the darkness a few feet this side of the fatal point. Staggering ina nil nut'of ditches and stumbling over masses of broken timber, with only a few lanterns, the rescue gang set bravely to work. Axes and shovels wore piled with the greatest vigor, and almost nt every half a dozen strokes a.mangled form was brought up and laid tenderly on the pallets. It was n terrible task, and the strongest of men turned aside, faint from the revehi+iensOf tbe A heap of blood-stained timbers, turned aside by one of the rescuers, brought to isight a woman's nrm. It bad been wrenched off nt the shoiitdcr. Not five minutes lateJi a ehnnee blow ffom < pick revealed a human heart.