The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-20
THE PENNSYLVANIA COLLISION.
Additional Details of the Wreck of Sunday
Night-Arrest of the Telegraph Operator.

Nisht-Arrest of the Telegraph Operator.
NEW YORK, Oct 19.-The accident on the
pennsylvania line occurred soon after last
evening, but the meagerness of the details,
twelve hours afterward. proves that we have
bowling wilderness in the Jersey Meadows only
three miles from the City Hall, as impenetrable
and as distant the Sierra Nevadas Though
| there are no fewer than eight railway tracks al
the point in question, there is not a habitable
house in either direction for miles. The precise
spot of the collision was under coal-chute be-
yond the west end of the Hackensack bridge.
An express train ran into an emigrant train,
knocking caboose that was at the rear of the
latter, across the east bound track Both trains
were bound west. Before the track could be
protected across which the caboose had been
| thrown, passenger train of the Lehigh Valley
railroad came laundering up the east track II
splintered the already dismantled caboose, and
was itself derailed, the engine pungng down
the steep embankment and topplng over into
the mud. in which it settled four feet The bag
gage-ear followed the engine half way down the
bank, and the smoking-car left the track. The
emigrant train was filled with passengers. many
Of them women Their cries mingled pitifully
with the Kissing steam and the crash of timber
and iron. After the immediate shock many of
the passengers joined the train hands in a search
for the hurt to whom they were guided by the
cries of the victims. AS the of the disas-
ter was not more than the length of two cars
the searchers were not long in finding the in
jured. Two persons mm ediately pulled
out from under the caboose. One was woman,
whose head had been cut of. The
thou %ba ND
crushed beyond recognition. The head
was shapeless and the body like pup. A man
with his head bleeding crawled up the bank over
which the engine had toppled He was Owen
Hall, the engineer of the Lehigh express Others
were found in the cars. A woman lay on the fioor
near the rear door of the car that Immediately
preceded the caboose the emigrant train. The
car was telescoped AS the men raised her, her
leg dropped out of her Dress 1t had been cut
off at the thigh.
Word was sent to Jersey City soon after the
accident and at $780, relief train arrived at the
scene of the wreck. The wounded were still
moaning and shrieking. Three of them had
been carried into the smok:ngcar of the Lehgh
Valley train. The woman who had lost her leg
lay in one corner The other two persons were
dead mal and woman who was insensiblo
from fractured thighs. The other two bodies
lay on the bank, and the wounded were scattered
in the cars in which they had been hurt their
friends caring for them as best they might with
scant appliances for their comfort The relief
tran with the three persons on board, was at
once returned to Jersey City. Another train
arrived to take its place, and at 10 o'clock went
back with the rest of the dead and wounded
hon tba {ro;p dat boI
splintered caboose, moved on toward Newark.
The1express train was drawn back mile to the
freight switch and then proceeded to Philadelphia,
and the passengers of the Lehigh Valley train
walked around the wreck, and took coaches that
had been sent from Jersey City.
The wreckers were in sole possession by 1890
o'clock. They found that No. 10 engine, belong
ing to the express train, had leaped the track,
and was pointing the embankment. The
collision with the caboose had knocked off the
engines pilot, but. so far could be seen, no
further damage had been done. The Pullman
car stood on the track behind the
wrenched coupling Engineer Covert and
his fireman were with the engine. Both had
been badly shaken up, but neither hurt.
There was no sign of the emigrant train. except
the caboose which the wreckers were removing
by tearing it apart. Splinters of wood strew the
track for several feet beyond the caboose Part
of them were from the car In front of the ca.
boose, whose rear had been crushed in. An
ambulance from st. Francis Hospital JERSEY
City. waited at the wreck until all the injured
had been removed.
The accident was caused by the delay of the
emigrant train in getting out of the way. Ii
had left Jersey City at 500, the express follow
ing at 8:l5. The emigrant train stopped at the
chute for COAL had loaded. and was backing
slowly when the express came along. not having
been warned by the operator at the block sta
tion at Marion.
The first relief train reached Jersey City at a
few minutes before IL o'clock, and despite the
efforts of the police few of the curious lodged
through theirlines TO the cars The ambuances
were drawn up in line before the track ready for
the victims, and the drivers and station men
hastened down the platform with stretchers to
transfer them The officers were obliged to ex-
erclse the utmost vigilance to keep the people
back. and in at least two instances were forced
to use their clubs Many persons in the crowd
were friends or relatives of persons who had
started out on the evening trains, and they were
anxious to know if they among the in
Jured. The dead and injured were together in
baggage car, with the doctors. In one end a
stout Norwegian emigrant girl lay dead. She
dad evidently been struck with terrific force at
the base of her skull and her head was
torn completely from her neck and hung by
the skin in pulpy mass 1t was nearly an hour
before anything further was heard from the
wreck, and then an incoming train brought in
more Injured with its passengers The bodies
VI t"o oOys anu u Wouan Wero touhu tliiS noIA-
ing under the Lehigh Valley engine. The bodies
have not been identified
Thomas 2. Pratt. telegraph operator at Ma.
rion, has been arrested. Pratt who is twenty.
six years old, is experienced operator He
admits that he did not give the right signal. He
says he was advised by his friends TO desert, bus
ha refused to do SO. He is held to await the
action of the coroners jury. He resides at 1928,
Fifth street, this city, with his wife and threei
children.
The three bodies dicovered this morning buriedj
beneath the front Of the Lehigh Valley engine