St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-01-05
Terrible Railroad Accident.
TRAIN WITH us PEOPLE BREAKS
THROUGH AN IRON BRIDGE.

A Third of the Number perhaps Killed and a
Great many Wounded--Horrible Suffering
of the Victims.
One of the most horrible railroad dis
asters in this country for many years
occurred on the Lake Shore railroad
near Ashtabula, O., Friday. The Pacific
express train, six coaches and one or
two drawing-roop cars, arriving at that
point about O'Clock in the evening,
bound westward, and an hour late,
broke through an iron bridge across
Ashtabula creek, falling to the ice be-
low, rs feet, and Immediately caught
fire. Many passengers were undOubt-
eddy killed and wounded by the fall,
others were burned to death, and, in
addition, some, entangled among the
debris SO that they could not extricate
themselves, were drowned, for the ice
was broken at some points; others
still were, possibly, frozen to death, the
work of rescue being slow, and the
weather, meantime, growing intensely
cold. 1t was impossible to determine
how many were killed and wounded,
but the cars were well loaded, and an
estimate of us as the whole number of
people on board is probably pretty cor
rect, while the fear that at least one
third of them were killed is by no means
unwarranted. AS near as could be as
certained about midnight, 50 persons
were wounded, but later report in
dicates that the number was larger.
1t had been showing almost constant
ly for AZ hours, and at the time of the
disaster the storm was driving, the snow
being heaped up in high banks on both
sides of the track-all this making ac-
cess to the scene with help difficult, the
work of Identification slow, and intelli-
gence about the affair meager. Just
how the accident happened we are not
told, but the train was drawn by two
engines, and, when the crash came, one
of them was left on the bridge, every
thing else going down the engineer
and fireman of the engine that fell were,
however, not killed, though somewhat
injured. Relief was Immediately sent
from Ashtabula and Cleveland, but the
train from the latter city was two hours
in getting 30 miles, so deep was the
snow, though drawn by two engines.
Meanwhile the sufferings of those i'm
prisOned in the wreck must have been
horrible, for the weather grew colder
and colder. Both public and private
houses of Ashtabula were thrown open,
and everybody that could work to ad-
vantage did work among the debris,
but little could be accomplished before
daylight. The burning of the wreck
lasted till LOO next morning.
SIMILAR ACCIDENT ON THE SAME ROAD.
The disaster recalls at once the can
COLA horrorn-an accident very similar
in character and extent-which occur
red on the same railroad, about 100
miles east of Ashtabula, on the 18th of
December, 1867. In this case 20 people
were killed, and 40 wounded. The
train was New York express, due in
Buffalo at 1l:45 P. NJ. The next to the
rear car was thrown from the track Just
before entering bridge, and, just as it
was nearly across, a second car was
thrown off, and both rolled down a 80
feet embankment to the ice below. One
of the cars was burned up, and what
people in it were not crushed by the
fall persisted in the flames. Almost
everybody in the other car escaped.