Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-11-23


THE LATE ACCIDENT AT Mont GEMS
With regard to the late accident in the Mont
Gents tunnel, the following is an extract from
the letter of a lady who was one of the passen-
gers:
MILAN, Oct. 13.-Sir: Before / say anything
about Paris | must tell you of the frighLlul ac-
cdent that happened to us in the Mont Gems
tunnel this day week. They say every one must
experience some accident or another if they
traVeltDy rall. Our day came at last. We were
face to face with death, and death of the most
irightful kind. We left Modane about four
O'Clock last Sunday afternoon, and after fifteen
minutes ride in the train we arrived at the
mouth of the celebrated Italian Pass, the Mont
Gents tunnel, which is one hundred and fifty
feet above the town of Modane and the train
gets TO it by zigzag kind of way. If all goes
right the express gets through the tunnel in
forty minutes. Now, we had got nearly through
when, without the least warning, except ter.
rife noise and an awful crash which sent lis
flying from our seats, our tram stopped. We
were so stunned for the first minute that none
of us knew anything, but the shrieks of our
fellow passengers awakened us TO the sense of
our danger. In about five minutes our coupe
was filled with smoke, and we were in total
darkness.
The horror we experienced cannot tell You,
for no one can imagine ii even who has not gone
through it, Our train had run into a goods
train in the very centre of this horrid inferno
The heat was like an oven. Three of the car
riages were smashed to splnters, and several
passengers were MORALLY wounded. The body
of one engineer has not yet been found. Well
we stuck in this horrible place. without light
almost without air, and without help, for five
hours. Our engine had burst, and this had
caused the smoke. At last six engines were
brought into the tunnel to drag us out. After
the second hour had passed the employees seemed
to lose their heads, and when the engines came
were flying backward and forward every mo-
ment believing we should he dashed to pieces
All the passengers crowded together, and we
fairly shreked to God to deliver us from sdch
horrible DEATH We wrote our names on slips of
paper in case we should die in the tunnel At
last we got off and were taken back to Modane,
the same place we started from.
When we arrived at the station, such a scene
! shall never forget. Some women were in con-
WILSON'S; men were weeping; some had to be
carried from the coupe; my sister and | both
tainted when we put our feet on safe ground We
had kept up wonderfully in the tunnel, and no
harm had happened to us except some cuts in
the face from splinters Of glass. Our nerves are
weaker than baby's, and do not think we
snail regain our health for months; but we are
thankful to have been saved. The mismanage-
ment that night was shameful, and hope the
world maytknow the facts as they really oc-
Cured. We have read several accounts in the
papers, but they misrepresent the disaster al
together, and they dare not say how-frightfu it
was. Ii we had not, happily, been in such good
health, we might have sustained an irreparable
injury. Some of the ladies are injured so that
they cannot be moved for a MONTH"