The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-06
Special Train Crashes Into Crowded Trolley Car at
 Cohoes, N. Y.'
EIGHTEEN PERSONS KILLED
TEN MORE, AT LEAST, TT IS SAID,
 WILL DIE.


 High Rate of Speed The Crossing at Grade-The Passengers on the Car Numbered Thtrtv-five and Were Re- Mostly Young People.
 Cohoes, N. r., Sept. 5.-Shortly be- fore o'clock here tonight a trolley car of the Troy City Railway company was struck by the night boat special of the Delaware and Hudson railroad at a crossing at the west end of the Hudson river bridge, which connects this city with Lansingburg, and its load of human freight was hurled into the air. Eighteen of the thirty five passengers are dead and at least ten of the remainder will die. The cars entering the city from Lansingburg to- night were crowded with passengers returning from Labor day picnic at Rensselaer, park, a pleasure resort
 
 railway was the victim of the disaster It came over the bridge about 7.35 o'clock laden with merry party.
 The crossing where the accident oc- cured is at grade. Four tracks of the Delaware and Hudson road, which runs north and south at this point, cross the two tracks of the trolley road It was the hour when the night boat special, a train which runs south and connects with the New York city boat at Albany, was due to pass that point. The tracks of the line run at a grade from the bridge to the point where the disaster took place. In consequence of this fact and of the frequent passage motor car conductor to stop his car and go forward to observe the tracks and signal his car to proceed, if not trains were in sight It cannot be ascertain ed whether that rule was compiled with on this occasion, for all events prior to the crash was forgotten by those who participated.
 The motor car was struck directly In the center by the engine of the train which was going at a high rate of speed The accident came without the slightest warning. The car was upon the tracks before the train loomed in sight and no power on earth could save it. The matorman evidently saw the train approaching as he reached the track and opened his lever in vain With a crash that startled people for blocks around, the locomotive crashed into the lighter vehicle. The motorcar parted in two, both sections being hurled into the air in splinters. The mass of humanity, for the car was crowded to overf1owing, was torn and mangled The force of the collision was experienced to the greatest degree in the front part of the car and every human being in that section was killed.
 The scene after the accident was horrible one. A mass of shattered hu- manity lay about. Bodies had been hurled into the air and their headless and limbless trunks were found in some cases fifty feet from the crossing. The pilot of the engine was smashed, and amid it's wreckage were the maimed corpses of two women. The shrieks of the wounded and the groans of the dy- ing added to the horrors of the scene. The passengers of the train suffered no injurw other than violent shock. The majority of the passengers of the trol- lev were young people. They included many women. The accident, taking place almost within the heart of the city, caused the widest excitement. The passengers of the car were mostly Cohoes residents returning to their homes.
 Within ten minutes after the collision fully one-half of the population of the city were surging about the vicinity in an endeavor to assist the unfortunates. The injured were taken to the hospi- tals and to the Continental knitting mill The bloody corpses were picked 11p in boxes and placed in neighbor- ing mill shed. Many of them were un- recognizable. The crash was frightful in it's results. Headless women with gay summer dresses bathed in their own and the blood of others; limbs without trunks or any means of identi- flying to whom they belonged; bodies crushed and flattened-these constitut- ed a horrifying spectacle.
 The train of the Delaware and Hud- son road after the accident proceeded to Troy The engineer stated that he did not see the car until he was upon if. He tried to prevent his train from striking the car, but his efforts were useless. His train was going at a very high rate of speed. He was some min utes late and was trying to make up lost time. In consequence of the eau tion taken by the trolley road to ascer- tain if the tracks were clear the en- eyineers of trains have always felt safe in running by at high rate of speed rrhe engineer thinks that the motor man when he saw the train was upon him tried to get beyond the danger line. The grade of this crossing and the sneed at which the car was going made it impossible to stop before he reached the Delaware and Hudson tracks. >