The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1890-06-06
OPEN DRAW.
PASSENGER TRAIN FALLs INTO
THE RIVER.

Many Lives Lost in y Trightful Railroad
Accident at san Francisco-An Engi-
nser's Carelessness.
San Francisco Cali dispatch: In o
frightful railroad accident twenty-n inc
people have lost their lives. The local
train connecting at Oakland with the
ferryboats from San Francisco ran
through an open d%rawbridge over San
| Antonio Creek ut Webster street, Oak
land. The yacht Juanita had just
passed through the draw when the
train appeared. going in the direction
of Alameda. The d%rawbridge keeper
e%mdeavored at once to close the bridge.
but 1t was Too late, and the engine with
the tender aud the first car, which was
filled with passengers, plunged into the
creek, which was here quite deep.
Engineer Sam Dunn, when he saw
that the bridge did not close, reversed
the lever, but the momentum OF the EN-
CINE was too great to allow him to stop
the train in time. The weight of tho
engine and the first car broke the coup
lings and left the other wv cars of the
train standing on the track. The Sec
ond car ran about q third of the way
across the bridge aud stopped. but tho
jar was sufficient to break open the
front Of the car, and many of the pas
sengcrs were thrown into tho water.
The first car, which had followed tho
engine to the bottom of the muddy es-
tuary, soon rose. and such of the passen-
gers as had escaped were picked up by
the yachts and small boats which gath
cred ut the scene. The trainmen and
the rest of the passengers set to work to
help the r%cscuers, and when the wreck
ing train arrived from Oakland the cur
was drawn into shallow water md small
boats began dragging the creek for the
bodies of the victims.
The top of tine passenger coach was
II Open as soon Us 1T was raised above
the water and the work of removing the
bodies commenced, ten being taken out
in quick succession. Three women and
three girls were taken from the water
alive and removed to the receiving hos
pital. Another young lady died soon
after being taken from the water.
The news of the accident created In.
tense excitement i'm Oakland and thous-
ands Of people tlocScd to the org and
to the scene OF the wreck. AT the
morgue bodies were laid out as soon as
received to await Identification.
The body of r. p. Robinson, which
was among those taken from the hole
cut in the root of the car, was among
ltiO itISU ICulONcu, itu was Uuhcn CutIS0
of by Coroner EverS. The bodies of six
men and two women were brought i'm
soon after, some of the bodies being at
first left at the receiving hospital,
where the injured were also taken. In
a short time thirteen bodies lay on the
floor and on the marble slabs of the
morgue awaiting Identification. and
heartrending scenes were witnessed as
friends came forward to claim their
dead. The list of the identified is as
follows:
MARTIN KELLY. Oakland. AssistantChief
Wharfnger for the State.
A. II. AUSTIN of Austin g. Phelps, San
francisco.
MS FLORENCE AUSTIN.
Mrs. BRYAN O'CONNOR. widow of the de-
ceased member of the firm of O'Connor. Mof-
fatt & Co. San Francisco.
j. Il. IRWIN. sewing machine agent, Oak.
land.
i. II. ROBINSON. san Francisco.
LUIGI MALTlESTA. sam Francisco.
Capt. JOHN DWYER. Sacramento.
MIR. WILLIAMS. San Francisco.
! A. W. , MIR MIs .ssls'r HiiE ElEsMSnAIsNla s.D Franz
u: MALTERA. Sam Francisco.
The experience of the passengers i'm
the first coach, as related by those who
fortunately escaped, was horrible i'm tho
NaNICiuNs IL u. EiIItts VI SuIl IIitIl.
cisco, ono of the passengers. told IL
graphic story of the disaster. 1--WE
left the city, he said, son tho
l:25 train for Alameda on the narrow
g,iagc. was seated on the front seat
of the first Cur, facing the engine. All
went we'll until just as we approached
the drawbridge crossing san Antonio
creek. AS we drew near to the
bridge 1T seemed to me the draw was
open and that n fearful accident was
inevitable. just then IL nan jumped
from the engine into the water, and
then came q crash. A horrible crush
ing of timber and swapping of heavy
iron-work followed, aud at once con
s%tcrnation prevailed in the car. Tie
ncXt thing l knew l found myself blinaly
cropping for the door. which ] fortu-
natcly found and opened. When I
worked my way by climbing and hold
ing on to the front of the car to the
roof, which l had Just reached when
that end of the car rose out of
the water, and quite a number of people
escaped in this manner. principally
women and children. The car was about
two-thirds full when we left the wharf,
N i should judge there were at least
fifty people In it. There was a fearful
cutlery when the car began to fill. but
this was almost Immediately hushed in
one long final wall of despair"
James Dunlap. who was tending the
bridge at the time of the accident. said:
~ was in charge at the time
and had Just opened the draw to
to allow the yacht Juanita to pass
through. was in tho act of moving
the draw back into place when the up
train from San Francisco came along.
That is all 1 know about it, He de-
clined to answer the question If it was
not rather unusual to open the draw
just at the hour when the train was due.
The water over which the bridge is
built is an estuary of San Francisco bay.
A strong current runs in the stream.
which at tho point of the accident is
about 300 feet wide and twenty feetdeep.
A passenger. train crosses the bridge
every half hour during the day and
when the bridge is open the keeper is
supposed to signal by hoisting a red
flag. The bridgetender says the
danger flag was properly set in the CEN
ter of the track when the bridge was
opened for the yacht Juanita to pass.
1t is known that the engineer and
fireman both escaped. It seems proba-
BILE hat the terrible accident was due to
the carelessness of the engineer.
II is now know that there were forty
eight people in tho car that went down..
OF these nineteen are known to have cs-
capped with their lives, making the prob