Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1895-11-23
AWFUL CATASTROPHE.
Frlghtful Plunge of a Motor Car
Through a Draw.


One Hundred and Twenty Feet Through
Space Into the River Below-.Fifteen
Persons Make the Plunge and All
but Two Perish In the Fall.
CLEVELAND, O., Nov. 1s-A fright
tul accident which occurred here last
evening, suddenly threw number of
South side families into mourning,
and 1t was all due to the criminal and
still uneXplainable carelessness of
street-car conductor. The careless.
ness of the conductor will, however,
never be explained, for he Is among
the victims of the catastrophe. Nine.
teen lives were lost, and some of those
who were eycwitnesses OF that awful
plunge into that dark abyss OF l20 feet
assert that the motorman, as we'll as
the conductor, was responsible.
The accident occurred at 7S5 o'c.ock
at the draw 0, the Central viaduct, IL
long stone-and-iron structure which
crosses "a valley and the Cuyahoga
river and connects jennings avenue
on the south side and Central avenue
on the east. The bridge is 100 feet
above the river and draw is immdi-
ately above it to admit the passage Of
tall masted vessels.
The draw was open for a tug draw.
Ing schooner which was about to
pass beneath the bridge. As usual the
gates were closed on both sides of the
draw and the danger lights of red were
displayed to guard against just such
accidents as occurred last night. An
electric car was seen coming along
from the east towards the south side,
but Capt. Charles Brennan, who had
charge Of the bridge, had no thought
of danger, as the usual precautions
had been observed. The car was one
of the Cedar and Jennings iavenue
branch of the Big Consolidated line
and had fifteen passengers, conductor
and motorman aboard.
At what is known as the dcrailing
switch, some 200 feet from the draw,
the conductor mechanically alighted,
us is the wont of all the conductors at
this point, to see if all was right and
whether the coast was clear The
car, as all cars do, came to a sudden
standstill, and the motorman waited
for orders. The conductor, for some
unaccountable reason, failed to see the
red signal of danger an the closed
gates, or perhaps custom made him
careless, and he signaled to the motor
man, named Rogers, to came ahead.
The motorman tnrned on the electric
fluid, the conductor jumped aboard
the car, which at considerable speed
went rolling toward the draw.
Why the motorman did not see tho
danger lights or the closed gatel
sooner than he did will perhaps always
remain a mystery, but the fact remain:
that he did not. Nearer and nearer
came the car to that awful abyss ant
a few feet from the draw it frs
dawned upon the motorman that tn,
draw was open. He made eXtraordi
nary efforts TO turn off the current
but it was of no avail The bridg
cap ain shouted like one possessed ant
screamed incoherently but there wa
nothing left for him to do.
The motorman, realizing his owl
danger, forsools the precious freigh
of men, women and children entruste,
} to lis care, leapcd off the front plat
form just as the car was nearing tn
draw, ran down the viadnct in the di
) rection of Central avenue and disar
peared in the darkness.
At the same instant two male par
sengers jumped off the car platfori
) and escaped death as if by miracle
: for the car had already crashed int
: the closed iron gate. The conductor
: too, tried to escape, but it was useles:
A second after the immense motor ha
crashed through the gate it recled bt
fore that awful space of 100 fee
: steadicd for moment and with tel
rifle speed was hu rled downward.
i Those who witnessed the acciden
) say that they heard one agonizing che
l rus of screams, and in an instant a
| was quiet as death. The car struc
upon Il projection of piles in the abu
| ment beneath the draw, then turnin
and breaking into pieces, it leaped int
the dark river below, breaking tn
towline between the tug and TIL
schooner that was passing beneath til
Q draw.
: A moment after the car struck I'll
1 river few suppressed groans wei
heard by the men who happened to
on the docks below and then all W;
! over Men from the bridge above an
;, from the docks yelled to the men G
!, the tug to pick up the people, b,
thirteen lives was sacrificed, only tw
passengers, one man and one woma
being taken out alive.
Inside of twenty minutes n fireboa
six ambulances, six dead wagon and
( squad of policemen were on the seen
0 The injured man and woman were
once taken to the hospital, but it toe
, many hours of hard and patient toll
extricate the thirteen bodies from ii
, wrcckage of the car in the river Oh
by one the bodies were taken to unde
taking establishments spread ov'
S every part of the city, for this city
S without morgue, and the work
n Identification was extremely slow.
Late at night when the south si'
4
!. when they began to realize that the
a loved ones had not yet returned hon
h the undertaking establishments we
visited, where one after another t
bodies were identified.
The scenes were heartrending in Il
extreme.