The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-07-09
The Newark Railroad Disaster.

inc newark WatirO0o uHBastcr.
A train from Newark yesterday morning
collded with train from New York, and
four persons were killed, while many more
were seriously injured. The usual concomi-
tant horrors of fire and escaping steam were
added to the precedent horror Of collision, and
the dreadful sulerings ofthe victims of the dis
aster were increased accordingly. The
wounded by the splintered cars found death
by fire or scalding, and those who might have
escaped scot free from the original smash-up
found themselves manned or Scared piteously
by the unrelenting, quick-pursuing steam or
fire. Although the details Of the horror show
it to have been not equal in terrible suffering
and loss of life to the Cars Rock or New Ham
burg disaster, still, occurring as it has upon
highway as necessary to New York and almost
as much frequented by our citizens and bust
ness people as Broadway itself, it assumes
greater Importance from being more directly
connected with New Workers. than either Of
those criminal accidents. People here take
trips to Newark as they would to Brooklyn or
to Jersey City. Newark is our second most
upon railroad connecting us with it is
a matter of the most terrible interest to us
in general and directly affects every home In
Newark
A misplaced switch is said to have caused
the trouble. 1t is almost incredible that the
negligence that could permit of misplaced
switches could exist upon road where trains
1lu hob ~
more daily, and over which thousands of our
citizens pass every hour. 1t is as incredible
as that a deadly bombshell would be left to
burn its slow fuse to the bursting point in
crowded Broadway or a deadly torpedo would
be allowed to lie quietly under the prows Of
brakeman Of freight train left the switch
open after his own train had passed, and thus
the accident occurred. A misplaced switch
cannot have been the result Of negligence in
this instance so much as the result of inhuman
deviltry. There are strange elements in
human nature sometimes, that take to murder
or suicide merely to satiate a terrible mono
mania. Men have been known to kill because
they could not resist the strange fascination of
this mania; to throw themselves from house.
tops, attracted by the dizzy depth of the fall
and men have been known to throw trains
from the track in their morbid desire to see the
wreck. These are of the ''emotionally insane
that throng before our legal tribunals for the
crime of murder. Whether the misplaced
switch was the genuine blunder of the brake
man or whether it was the deliberate work of
a monomaniac, the parsimony of company
that entrusts the duty Of changing the switches
to the brakemen, who are likely to have their
hands full attending to their own legitimate
business, to say nothing more severely
of such an awkward, inconvenient and
dangerous system, deserves the Sc
verest punishment. Watchmen, flag
men and switch tenders ought to be
stationed lavishly all along a line like the
Newark Railroad, and each switch should be
in sight of some employee of the railroad and
under his own especial direction at all times,
and especially at this time, when the trains
are even more than usually crowded. An in
vestigation is now in progress, and the result
Of it will probably place the authorship of this
calamity where it belongs. A verdict Of ''no-
body to blame, if the facts stand as they are
now reported, would be an open announce
ment of the indifference of the company to
the lives and limbs of its passengers, and
ought to be sufficient to consign the directors
of this Juggernaut to the execration that
public opinion will prepare for them.