The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1877-01-06
The Ashtabu1a Disaster.

The terrible railroad accident which occurred i'll
Ohio, on Friday night of last week is thus COM
mented upon editorially by the New York Times
of Tuesday:
'Later particulars of the frightful railroad dis
aster near Ashtabula, Ohio, do not greatly miti-
gate the terrors of that calamity, first reported
There is still some uncertainty as to the exact
number Of the killed. 1t is not likely, indeed,
that the death-roll will ever be complete. Many
of the dead were not only burned past all posi-
BILE recognition, but the bodies of some were SO
nearly consumed that it would be difficult to tell
whether the poor remains represented one person
or fragments of several 1t is likely that some of
those hurled from the bridge and drowned in the
stream, were swept away by the icy current, and
will never be recovered The world is full OF peo-
pie who, dying and making no sign, may leave
none to moan over their absence and inquire what
has become of them. Some such may have been
on that fatal train. The conductor says that about
one hundred and sixty passengers left Buffalo with
him. and that about thirty left at various stations
If forty-nine escaped alive, and all the rest per-
ished, there would be loss of life of about sew
enty-fve Possibly, as Investigations are pushed,
| the estimate of the number on the train at The
time of the wreck may be still further changed.
The conductors calculation would seem more ike
y to be near the truth than that of any passenger
who had not specially noted the occupants of the
there were nearly 200 on the train.
"The disaster had all the elements of most
horrible tragedy. The night was cold and stormy.
the snow blowing furiously as the fated carriages
struggled on to the bridge. The continuity of the
train was not broken, but, as the network OF the
iron span gave way, everything upon it, save an
extra locomotive at the head, was preciptated in
to the gorge below. The fall, the fire that sue
ceeded, and the icy stream in which some were en-
| trapped by the crushed ice, were the means by
| which so many were cut off. 1t was frightful
| spectacle. atwhich do not look, even in imagi-
| nation, wftdost a thrill of horror. 1t has filled
| many homes with lamentation, and left many per-
sons manned for life. 1t was a swifter destruction
| than that which came upon the lost in the Brook
lyn fire. The train fell like bolt. The agony OF
some was prolonged. But the most part died sud
denly 1t was a mercy that they were spared the
lingering suffering of few.
@The attention of everybody will be directed to
conjecturing the cause of this shocking slaughter
1t is idle to say that railroad travelling is attended
with certain percentage of risk and that the av-
erage of casualties is made up somehow. In this
| particular case, there was a fault in the bridge
which fell if this were not true, the bridge would
have been standing to-day and there would have
been no such lamentable disaster to chronicle. TC
| be sure the bridge had stood the test of heavy
trains for eleven years but there must, sooner OIL
later, come strain which will bring down struc-
ture which has its weak point. 1t came to the
Ashtabula bridge last Friday night. The storm
of snow had nothing directly to do with the dis
aster, except to add to its terror. Even the cold
| which was intense, should not have fastened the
catastrophe. There have been colder nights dur
ing these eleven Winters past, and The bridge has
stood through them. But the weak place, where
ever it was may have been made weaker by the
low temperature; and the work, with its imper
fiction undetected, was ready to fall when fros
had contracted the iron, and heavy train hao
rolled upon it. Men build bridges for absolute
safety; for years, after due trial, they seem alb
soutely safe. Then vigilance relaXes. Millions
of passengers go and come without any apparent
danger. But the work only needs the fatal touch
1t is tottering to its fall.
eff the Ashtabula bridge had been new one
there would be less difficulty in reaching the exac
cause of its destruction. As it is, there is as ye
no explanation of the disaster to which both the
managers of the road and the public will assent
1t is natural for the former to plead that the dis
aster was unavoidable and the public equally GER
tain to say that it was the inevitable result o.
criminal and gross carelessness There are re-
ports, more or less vague, of the bridge being con
sidered unsafe. Certainly it does seem as If 6
work of this sort, constructed to insure the saft
passage of countless passengers might have beer
so built that a frequent and careful examination
would show its weak spot, if it had any. 1t II
probable that this was the case with the Ashtabult
bridge Whatever may come of the frost theory
or the theory of a car thrown from the track, il
this particular case we are forced to the conclu
sion that the Ashtabula disaster might have beer
averted if Il bridge had been more vigilantly ex