Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-08-06
OVER FORTY DEAD.
FLYING EXPRESS CUTS ExCUR-
SION TRAIN IN TWO.
Awful Disaster Occurs at Crossing
Near Jersey City-Reading Express
Catches a West Jersey Excursion
Broadside-Sixty Are Injured.
Scores Are Killed.

n uy1ng express train OIL Tue iteduiuS
and Atlantic City Railroad crashed into
a West Jersey Railroad excursion train
at the crossing Of the two roads Thurs
day night. At least forty people were
killed outright and about sixty injured.
or the killed twelve were women, twenty
four men and four children. The crash
was the most disastrous in the history Of
eastern railroad traffic.
The accident was the result Of a col
!ision between the 5:40 p. m. express train
from Philadelphia over the Reading and
Atlantic City Railroad and an excursion
of Red Men from Bridgeton, n. j., and vi
cinity, returning from Atlantic City, over
the West Jersey Railroad, at the crossing
Of the two roads a short distance out of
Atlantic City.
At the second signal tower the tracks of
the two roads cross diagonally. The Read
ing train was given the signal but it
either failed to work or the speed of the
express was too great to be checked in
time. 1t caught the excursion train
broadside and plowed through it, literally
cleaving it in twain. The engine of the
Reading train was shattered to pieces.
Every car was jammed to its fullest ca
pacity.
AS soon as the news reached Atlantic
City the utmost CONSERVATION prevailed.
Relief trains were dispatched to the scene,
loaded with cots and bearing stats Of
surgeons AS fast as the bodies were re-
covered they were carried into the local
hospitals and undertakers' shops. A gen.
eral fire alarm was sounded, and the de-
partment promptly responded and aided
in the work of digging for the victims.
The worst fears were realized as the
vigorous work Of the relief gangs revealed
the awful extent of the disaster. The first
Reading relief train bore into the city
twenty-seven mangled corpses, men, wom-
en- and children. The next train, not an
hour later, carried fifteen of the manned
and wounded, and two of these died soon
after reaching the city.
Hospitals Overtaxed.
AS train after train was hurried to the
scene Of the wreck and came back with
its CHASTITY load the sanitarium which does
duty as the city hospital quickly found
its capacity overtaxed. Meanwhile 9TH
ers of the dead and injured were being
carried to the private hospital at Ocean
and Pacific avenues.
Edward Farr, engineer of the Reading
train, was killed outright, as was another
road man who rode on the engine with
him. This man saw the collision coming
and leaped from the cab an instant before
the crash. Almost at the same instant
the engine cut its way through and caught
him directly in it's path. His body and
that of Farr were found under heap of
debris, but the engineer lay in what re-
a;ra of nd IA &c .i0ht hay utin
grasped the throttle. He had been faith
full unto death and met it at his post. The
fireman on the train had leaped a feS
seconds before and escaped with trifling
injuries.
Not Known Who Ie to Blame.
The excursion train was made up of
fifteen cars, the foremost of which was a
baggage car. This and the next two
coaches caught the full force Of the crash
and were utterly demolished. What re-
mained of the third car was tumbled into
n ditch at the roadside. The RESPONSE
bility for the accident cannot now be
fixed.
Charles G. Rynick, of Bridgeton, who
was in the excursion party, was in one of
the rear cars. "When we saw that col
lision was unavoidable" he said, "the
scene in our car was terrific. Women
tainted and men rushed in mad panic for
the door. But it came almost before we
had time to think. One car was cut right
in two and the lower portion of it lifted
bodily from the track and tumbed over.
The roof Of one Of the cars fell in a mass
and everybody in that car was buried un-
der it. 1t simply dropped on top of the
people. l don't know who is to blame.
When we were about two miles out from
Atlantic City, y. j., we came to a stop out
in the meadows and stayed there for sew
eral minutes, but l do not know why. l
think there must have been fully eighty
or 100 killed. The only person with me
was my 6-year-old son, and he was not
hurt"
Fourteen of the injured are reported to
have died at the sanitnrium.
Superintendent /. n. Swigard, Of the
Philadelphia and Reading Company,
places the number of dead at thirty-seven
and the injured at about the same num-
Der.
William Thurlow, the operator at the
block tower situated at the crossing, has
been placed under arrest by order OF the
coroner.
Scene at the Fatal Place.