The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-01
THE CROSSING.
1t Had Long Been a Bu-aboo tn
Travellers.


PHILADELPHIA, July 31.-The
crossing where last nights accident
occurred has long been a bugaboo to
travellers between this city and At
lantic City. 1t is located about two
and a half miles from the Atlantic
City terminal of the railroad. A block
tower is placed as close to the crossing
as safety will permit The tower is
occupied by operators. charged with
the duty Of seeing that the train hay-
Ing The right of way crosses first and
that the other train is tagged. There
IS dlherence of opinion as to which
train had the right Of way last night.
Telegraph Operator William Thurs
ton and Switch Tender Hauser are in
Atlantc City Jail and will remain
there until the official Investigation
definitely places the responsibility.
The competition between West Jersey
ana Reading railroads for the Atlantic
CITY business is very keen.
BOTH ROADS RUN FLYERS
which average nearly mile minute
between Camden and Atlantic CITY.
There are frequent races across the
stretch of open country few miles lies
outside Of Atlantic City known as
the Meadows and passengers who
are not timid regard the race as one of
the CIVILIZATIONS of the trip to the sea-
shore. The timid ones, however. are
always apprehensive that something
may happen as the dangerous grade
crossing IS approached. Last night the
long-looked-for accident occurred, with
awful results. railroad man who
came to this city from Atlantic City is
reported to have said that the Reading
n Mt he Q,-iI
cursion train, was racing across the
meadows with a train on the Camden
d Atlantic railroad, which had left
Philadelphia about the same time. The
railroad officials deny this.
A DOCTORS DESCRIPTION.
DR.. Charles A. Smith, of Harrisburg.
tells graphic story of the scenes he
witnessed at the railroad wreck at
Atlantic City last night "Only four
or i've bodies had been taken from the
wreck when L arrived there" he said
The Reading express had struck the
excursion train on the Pennsylvania.
cutting 1t clean in two The Reading
engine struck the second passenger
coach Of the excursion train. There
was nothing left of the coach except a
tangle of splinters, mixed up with
which were the mangled and torn
The third coach lay overturned, with
one side torn off. The engine and
baggage car of the excursion, train
stood on the rails unframed, as did the
cars at the other end of the train. In
the luckless car which opposed the
Reading engine, rushing on it nearly a
mile a minute, scarcely a passenger
was not killed or severely injured.
The Reading engine lay in a heap of
scrap iron and rubbish, piled I'D with
the smashed car. The wreokage caught
fire and the fire engine from Atlantic
City was brought out. The famea
soon were subdued. I could not tell
whether any of the victims were
burned to death. l saw one little bow
laid out on the hank with his clothes
burned quite off, but he might have
been dead before the flames reached
him.
Those spared on both trains stood
about dazed and helpless until the
screams of wounded and dying
brought them 70 their senses. Physi-
clans came thick and fast 1 assisted
them temporarily in dressing wounds
in the field, but it seemed as if almost
every victim pulled from the wreck
had been killed at the instant of the
collision. The sights were heart
breaking. Mothers were looking for
children, and husbands for wives.
The air was filed with groans.
ANOTHER STORY.
John Pelois. of this city, who was on
the West jersey train, and jumped
when he saw the collision was inevita-
bic, arrived here this morning. He
said; 1.-THE trains were crossing the
Meadows at a terrific rate and it
seemed to me as if one was trying to
catch the switch before the other So
far as could see, the red light in the
tower was up, blocking the Reading
train and giving the right of way to
the Pennsylvania. Neither train
stopped The escaping steam covered
the wrecked trains a few minutes and
when II lifted l could see broken cars
and dead and injured. saw the res