The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-11-18
PLUNGED TO DEATH.
A Cleveland Electric Car Dashed Into
the River.

THIRTEEN PEOPLE ARE HURLED
TO THEIR DEATH.
CulpaDie Gar elessness of a Conductor to
rays the Penalty with His Life-The
Motorman Jumped and Was Saved-A
tragic and Singular Accident.
| Cleveland. Ohio, November 16.-A
frightful accident by which 13 people lost
their lives occurred In the heart OF the
city this evening. Owing to the oriml-
nal and still Hnexplanable oarelessness
OF street car conductor, car well filled
with people took an awful plunge Of
120 feet from the Central street draw of
the Central viaduct into the dark waters
of Cuyahoga river. The accident
occurred at 7.35 o'clock. The
central viaduot is large stone
and iron structure which crosses the Val
ley railroad and Cuyahoga river, and con-
nects Jennings's avenue on the south side
| with Central avenue on the east. The
bridge is 100 feet above the river. The
draw was open for tug drawing a
schooner which was about to pass be-
meath the bridge. AS usual the gates
were closed on both sides of the drawer
and danger lights were displayed
to guard against accidents. 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 ave-
nue. branch of the big consolidated line
and had 10 passengers, conductor. and
motorman aboard. At what is known as
the "derailing switch" some 200 feet
from the draw, conductor mechanically
tors at this point, to see if all was right.
The car came to standstill and the
motorman waited for orders The con-
ductor for some unacoountable reason,
failed to see the red signal of danger on
the closed gates; or, perhaps, custom made
motorman, John Rogers. to come ahead.
The motorman turned on the electric
current, the conductor jumped aboard
the car and at a considerable speed the
car
NEARED THE DEATH TRAP
A few feet from the drawer, it dawned
upon the motorman that it was open.
With speed born of desperation, he
threw the handle and applied the brakes.
The bridge captain, seeing the approach
ing car, shouted like madman, but it
availed nothing. The car was already
on the downgrade to the draw and the
brakes would not hold on the slippery
rails. The motorman, realizing his
danger, forsook the precious cargo he
was hauling, and with wild cry leaped
off the front platform, ran down the
viaduct to Central avenue and disap-
peared in the da kness. Two male passen-
gers jumped off the rear platform and
escsaped death as by miracle.
The car reached the closed iron gates
and, in an instant, the crash of swapping
iron and breaking glass was heard. This
alarmed the conductor. who had stepped
inside and he was seen to make a dash
for the rear door, but too late.
A second LATER the car swayed on the
edge Of the awful space, and topped over
There was an
AGoNIZING CHORUS OF SCREAMS
and in an instant all was quiet. The car
struck upon projection Of piles in the
abutment beneath the draw ;then turning
and oollapsing it fell into the river be-
low, scattering it's passengers in all dlrec-
tions and breaking the towllne between
the tug and the schooner that were pass
ing.
A few suppressed groans were heard by
the men who happened to be on the docks
below. The men from the bridge above
and from the DOCKS who had witnessed
the accident, called to the men on the tug
to pick up the people, but only two pas
sengers one man, and one woman,
were rescued.
The news of the accident spread rapid
ly, and ina few minutes fire boat six
ambulances, six dead wagons and a squad
Of policemen were on hand. The in
jured man and woman were taken to the
hospital and the work OF rescuing the
bodies was taken up. One by one they
WoIo lOuuu duu Ubkou To uuucTthklug Us
adjustments in different parts of the citv.
as Cleveland has no morgue. TheEwork
Of Identification was extremely slow.
Late at night when the Southside resi-
denUs heard of the catastrophe, and when
THEIR BELOVED ONES
had not returned home, the undertaking
establishments were telephoned!and visit
ed, several of the bodies being identi-
fed before midnight. The police are on
the lookout for the motorman and extra
officers in every part OF the city are
searching for him, but thus far he has
not been apprehended
Among the identified up to midnight
are:
Miss Martha Sauerheimer and Mrs.
John Sauerheimer, her sister-in-law, OF
1854 Merchant avenue.
John Hoffman, the conductor, and
Curt Sephehne, 16-year-old boy, who
had ticket in his pocket from London,
4 w j. n ~