Morning journal and courier., 1893-02-28
COLLlDED IN THE cur.

ncucI Nau3hS liz sAAo ~~
Receives Serious and Probably
Fatal InjurIes-Trains Delayed for
About Two Hours-Thousand Of
People View the Ruins.
The railroad cut between Court street
and Grand avenue bridges was, lats yes-
terday afternoon, the ecsne of one of the
worst railroad wrecks which has occurred
in or near this city in several years. The
wreck was theresult of a triple collision
between two freight trains on the North
ampton division and an accommodation on
the Shore Line division of the Consolidated
railroad. Fortunately no one except the
fireman of one of the Canal road freight
trains was injured, and his injuries, while
Of a serious nature, it is not thought will
prove fatal.
About 5 o'clock last evening two freight
trains on the Canal road came into collision
near the Grand avenue bridge. In conse-
quence of the recent snow blockade, which
seriously interfered with the handling of
freight, for the past few days number
| of freight trains have been run over the
road following one another in close sue
| cession. This was the state of affairs yes
terday.
| The regular freight, known to trainmen
as No. 1876 was followed closely by an extra
freight over the came route. When the
regular freight arrived st Chapel street
bridge the engineer received signal
ordering him to stop his train and back
up. He at once followed instructions and
backed his train nearly down to the Grand
avenue bridge. At this point the engine
of the extra freight, which had received nc
signal to slacken up crashed into the
caboose of the regular freight and threw II
across the tracks, completely blocking all
tracks in and out of the city. The enginee,
of the extra freight, after coming around
regular freight bucking on to his train re-
versed his engine and tried in every way
to avert the collision, but was unsuccess
full. When he saw that the collision was
! inevitable both he and the fireman Jumped
from the cab and escaped without injury.
The Shore Line accommodation due in
this city at sos p. m. arrived on the scene
| and crashed into the wreck, completely de.
| molishing the engine and the tender of the
accommodation. The engine jumped the
track and, with the tender, turned over on
| its side, completely blocking the entire
road, the wreckage and the debris extend.
j A. & AAO1AA OAo SAdO VI JuO Cub 10 Inc QUIET.
Charles Bsdell of SS Cedar street, the fire.
man of the accommodation traip, became
| entangled in The machinery Of the engine
and between the cab and the stone wal
when it turned over, and Sustained com
pound fractures of the left leg and right
thigh, several bruises about the chest, and
it IL thought is injured internally. The
ambulance was summoned and be wat
| taken home
The Shore Line accommodation came
upon the scene of the wreck in less thar
two minutes after the first collision. and II
consequence it was impossible to get {
fsgman from the freight train back te
signal the rapidly approaching train.
The wIecker was sent out and at once
proceeded to clear the tracks. In the
meantime all trains were delayed and the
| passengers were transferred about the city
by means of hacks and horse CARS Thu
passengers on the north bound trains wer,
taken to Belle dock, where they wer,
transferred to the cars of the Fair Have1
and Westville Horse Railroad company
that road acting under instructions from
General Manager Tuttle, putting On I
number of extra cars. The passenger
were in this manner transferred around
the wreck to Grand avenue, where thel
were again transferred to trains and sen
on their way.
The engine of the accommodation trail
is total wreck, only the wheels and
small portion of the machinery remainin,
intact. The engine of the freight wa
strained but not materially damaged ex
cept the smoke stack, while the caboos
was completely smashed, and one of tn
freight cars had its side knocked out. Th
wrecking crew soon had the wreck cleare,
away, and shortly after O'Clock the roa
was clear and trains running on time. Til
wrecking train was in charge of Superin
, tendent Of Motive Power Hsnney and hi
first assistant, George White.
: At the time of the collision Superinter
dents Waterbury and Henney were passen
gers in the accommodation train. Th
' passengers were somewhat shaken up, bu
no one was injured. No damage was done
r the accommodation except to the engine
Among other New Hayeners on the trai
was James J. Geary of Geary Brothers an
Nathaniel Frink of Howard avenue.
No cause could last night be assigned fo
the collision. An investigation will b
made to-day or tomorrow, and in tn
meantime the eng ineers and conductors @
= all three trains have bsen suspended pend
ing the result of this investigation
The following is correct version of tn
cause of the accident, given by an eye wit
JIG asorge street: Il was , cross IS
ing the Grand avenue bridge, and no
ticsd canal freight train waiting. As
was formerly In the employ of the Consol
idated Railroad company, feel an interes
in the train service, and am aocustome,
when near them to notice If hagmen ar
out. wondered if it was protected by
flag, and looking over toward State stree
bridge, saw hagman on thu sharp curve
I felt that he ought to be farther bac1
and just then heard the engineer of tn
, | sc cond freight whistle for brakes. TIL
engine of this train was reversed and put
6ng furiously. The engine could not hol,
| the train, and it struck ths first train. TIL
, caboose of the first train was crushed ant
piled up against the oars ahead of it.
The cars were thrown against the Yves
wall and out the other way on to the ives
bound main track. While this was takin,
place and before the cars had ceased t
bulge out ACROSS the main track the passen
ger train from the east came under tn
bridge.
One large freight car swung out on tn
main track just in front of the passenge
engine. The passenger engine struck
and turning to the east as if it had beel
: switched, crossed over the east bount
track and struck the stone wall rollin,
over on its side. Just as the secont
freight struck the forward caboose saw
man jump or fall from forward car o
the second train and lie across the tract
upon which the passenger train was ap
preaching. My attention was then at
tracted from him to the passenger trai,
and am still wondering what became o
him.
The fagman seemed as unconoerned q
possible while he stood on the curve, no
seeming to realize that there was any dan
ger, neither did he seem to have any lif
or vim in him in trying to stop the rapid,
approaching train which was the cause O
this bad accident
DUE TO SLIPPERY TRACKS.
The scene of the wreck was visited b,
thousands. The probable cause of the col
lision, 1t was stated last night, was tn
slippery condition of the tracks and tn,
fact that the road has been running freigh
trains too close together. When the en-
gineer of the second freight perceived tn,
first, or regular freight, backing up, he q
once reversed his lever and whistled 70,
"down brakes" but owing to the slipper,
condition of the tracks his efforts were I'm
availing and the engine crashed into tn,
caboose of the forward train, tslescopip;
it and lifting the baggage car immediately
| in front of the caboose almost on its end
completely turning it crossways on tn
tracks. About this time the accommods
ton came along and although Engiaee
Knowles and Fireman Bedell saw tn
splinters flying from the wreck and i'm
mediately reversed the levers and whistlef
for brakes, they were unable to hold tn.
train and it crashed into the wreck. Boil
engineer and fireman remained heroicall,