The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-05
TROLLEY CARS TELESCOPED.
Three Men Killed and More Than "a
Score Injured.

DETROIT, Mich, Dec. 1.-TWO sub
urban cars carrying some twenty pas
sengers and both running at a speed
of twenty miles on hour, collided, on
the Detroit & Oakland electric railroad
at 1 o'clock this afternoon. The result
was that three men were instantly
killed and a score Of persons injured,
ten of them seriously.
The dead: John Savage, superintendent of
the road; Charles NJ. Whitehead, motorman;
John Kelly, of Detroit, book agent.
leg broken and internally injured; Louis
Harneck seriously bruised and internally in
jured; Mrs. John E. Doty,. OF Pontiac two
er of Mrs. John Doty, of Pontiac, badly
crushed and leg broken; Maj. John Madden,
of Leonard, legs and arms badly bruised !;
Peter Kemp, of Detroit, hole cut in leg and
face cut; Mrs. F. H. Smith. of Detroit, legs
end face badly bruised; Warner G. Codale,
of Lapear, severely bruised; Mrs. warner
Goldale face cut. body badly bruised; A. b..
Robertson, of Walnut Oakland county, leg
badly cut hand crushed and shoulders
bruised; John Reigel, Pontiac, compound
fracture OF leg.
A half dozen others were more or
less cut by broken glass and bruised
The exact cause of the accident is as
vet in doubt President Hendrie, of
the Detroit & Oakland railway, said
this evening that the responsibility for
the disaster had not yet been fixed
According to the schedule, a car leaves
each end, Detroit and Pontiac, every
hour and there are three sidingS along
the road Today the cars were behind
time The one bound south for Detroit
had passed an bound car at the
switch two miles from Pontiac, the
crew apparently being ignorant of the
fact that another outbound car was
approaching them less than two miles
distant, although it is claimed that
they should have known it from orders
sent from Birmingham. The weather
was foggy and the rails slippery from
the sleet which had been falling. The
collision came near a gravel pit about
midway between Pontiac and Birming-
ham, at the foot Of two steep grades
down which the fated cars ran at full
speed. The impact was terrific. The
cars were driven half through each
other and crushed to- pieces.
Supt. Savage was in the motOrman'S
Vestibule operating the outbound car.
Roth his legs were cut off and his dead
body was frightfully mangled. Motor
man Ntzhugh,, who stood behind Saw
age, narrowly escaped a similar fate
John Kelly was evidently the only pas
senger who saw the nOrth-bound car
approaching He rushed for the YES
Thule door and he and Motorman
Whitehead were struggling together to
get out of the door when the crash
came. Both were killed. Kelly's head
and shoulders were damned out of the
vestibule window and his neck was
broken. Whitehead's head was cut
open and his chest crushed.
Had it not been for the stout con-
struction of the cars, both of which
were new, it is doubtful whether any
of their occupants would have escaped
alive. AS it was nearly all of the four
teen passengers in south bound car
suffered some injury. Some of the in
jured were taken to farm houses.
others brought to city hospitals. The
company officials are investigating as
to the responsibility for the disaster
and a coroner's jury has already been
impanelled.