New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-12-14
KILLED ON THE RAILS.
SUDDEN DEATH ON AN ELEVATED ROAD.

TWO STORIES ABOUT A FATAL ACCIDENT AT
EIGHTY.NINTH-sT. AND THIRD-AvE-
Just how Martin Berman, a cigarmaker, came
to be crushed into atoms yesterday under the
wheels Of Third.ave elevated railroad train
may never positively be known. There are two
stories of his terrible death The first Of thGSe,
told by the trainmen, is that he was helplessly
drunk and fell on the rails. The second put
forth by his friends, none of whom was with
him at the time, says that Bierman, who lived
with his wife and children at No. 162 East
Eighty got into quarrel with a gate
man just as he Nas about to leave the train at
Eightyninth-st; that ne was brutally beaten,
pushed Of the car, and fell between the platform
and the train. The ticketchopper who was on
duty when Berman met his death mysteriously
disappeared Immediately after the fatality, and
could not be found. The only other discoverable
witnesses to the death are Daniel j. Tucker, the
engineer, and John Carroll the conductor of the
train Tucker is now prisoner pending an in.
vestigation Of the facts by the police of the
Twentyseventh Precinct.
This is the story told by Tucker and corrobo-
rated by Carroll. At 80 yesterday afternoon
train consisting Of five cars and drawn by motor
No. 95 rolled into the Eighty-ninth-st station on
its journey to South Ferry. At that moment
there were scarcely more than dozen people on
the platform. One of these was a fairly we'll
dressed man, apparently about thirty -fSuS- years
DID, He stood at the extreme edge Of the plat
form, about thirty feet from the guard rail at
the northern end. The man had evidently been
drinking. With each movement of his body he
staggered or swayed to and fro until his body
bent well over the downtown track. AS the front
of. the engine passed the upper end Of the plat
form, Tucker saw that the track was perfectly
clear. In the same instant his eye fell upon the
man standing on the edge of the platform, and
now perfectly motionless and erect The engine
was within six feet Of the man, when amid
cries Of horror from the bystanders, he was
seen TO lurch heavily forward, and, throwing
his arms above his head, in a wild effort to re-
gain hi balance, fall prone across the gstening
steel rails of the track
Then the wheels struck him, and he was caught
up, beaten down, and torn limb from limb, as the
engine drove him before it along the rails to the
end of the platform When the fragments of
the body had been picked up it was found that
the back of the head had been torn off and that
the legs had been dragged away from the trunk.
The body taken to the East Eighty -eighth-st.
police station, there to await the action of the
Coroner
Bierman's relatives Indignantly deny that he
dent They say that he had been to Harlem on
business and was returning to his home He
would ordinarily leave the train at Eighty-ninth-
ST., which is near where he lived. Their asser-
tion based apparently on simple belief, that he
was pushed of the train and thus fell under it
is not supported by any tangible evidence, and
at present there is no reason to doubt the truth
Of fuckers story.