Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-09-25
WRECK AND DEATH.

"A
England Road Last Night Three Man
gled Bodies Removed From the Wreck.
A horrible accident by which three
lives were sacrificed occurred on the
New England road near HObarts siding,
at Hawleyville, last night. Two freight
trains collided and both engines were
smashed and completely wrecked. Be
sides the engines eight cars were broken
to pieces and the track was buried in a
high pile of debris. The details of the
accident are as follows: Train 81, going
west, in charge of Conductor Conrad and
Engineer Heeney left Hawleyville short
Iy after 7 o'clock. Train % was on the
main track at Hawleyville and was
switching to a siding to allow train 67
to pass. Freight train No 700, from the
west, was almost due, and, as is the GUS
tom, Conductor Conrad should have
waited and let it pass. Instead of doing
so he proceeded and his train crashed
into the east bound train about half
mile west of Hawleyville
No 700 was in charge of Conductor
Bolger and Engineer Day.
Engineer Day, Fireman Larner and
Brakemen Stevens and Sprague, all of
train 700, were caught in the collision
and all went down in the terrible wreck.
The engineer and fireman of train No
g. jumped and saved their lives. ~.
The scene can hardly be described.
The engines were reduced to heap OF
broken and twisted iron, and the cars
were piled on top of one another.
Some assistance was obtained, and the
work of searching for the dead began.
Nearly twenty minutes after the accI-
dent occurred Brakeman Stevens was
seen to crawl from under the wreck
terribly bruised and injured. How he
| escaped is miracle. He was on top
of the third car, near the engine, when
| the collision occurred and two persons
standing near saw him go down.
AS soon as word of the accident was
received at the offices in East Hartford,
orders for dispatching wrecking train
were at once issued. 1t was some time
before the train had a sufficiently large
crew ready to start. The
wrecking train left Hartford for Haw-
leyville at 10 o'clock. A special train
with doctors fl ION Danbury was soon on
the scene. The body of Brakeman
Sprague was the first recovered. His
body was horribly mangled. Both arms
were cut off and Il great splinter was
forced clear through his body.
Under the wrecked engines were
found the bodies of Engineer Day and
Fireman Larner. Brakeman Stevens was
taken to the Danbury hospital. Word
IeCGlNGu lIllS CIldC lit
cannot live. The tracks were cleared
and traffic resumed this morning.
The cause of the accident is directly
due to the carelessness of Conductor
Conrad and Engineer Heeney. They
knew that No 600 was due and they
should have waited unless orders were
given to proceed. No such orders were
issued.
Conductor Conrad is at Hawley
but Engineer Heeney has disappeared
No one has seen him since the accident
Train 81, going west, was loaded will
boots and shoes and other merchandise
from Boston. No 700, from the west, il
an express freight and was loaded will
grain. Both trains were running at ;
speed of twenty-five miles an hour. The
loss to the road is about $4,000.
Engineer Day and Fireman Larne
lived in Hartford and Brakeman
Sprague in East Hartford. Soon afte
being recovered from the wreck thei
bodies were taken to Danbury. Corone
Doten of Bridgeport has been notified
and sent word that he would begin Al
Investigation Mt once