Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-01-12
EIGHTEEN LIVES CRUSHED OUT IN
LEHIGH VALLEY WRECK.

on the Lehigh Valley railroad at West
Dunellen, N. j., at 12:47 p. m. yester-
day, Is persons were killed and over 25
were injured, The dead are:
MARTIN KEENAN,, hotelkeeper, Mt. Car
mel.
W. F. HINKEL, contractor, Mt. Carmel.
JACOB HELLER, tailor, Mt. Carmel.
H. K. WIKELL, Mt. Carmel.
FRANK FISCHER, shoe dealer, Mt. Car.
mel
WILLIAM II. LEADER, merchant, Mt.
Carmel
FRANK MARKEL, Shamokin.
THEODORE s. KOHN, Shamokin.
A. 5. KEIFER. Pottsville.
WILLIAM II. MARKET, Shamokin.
JAMES JARVIS, Mt. Carmel.
Two UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN.
Five of the injured died during the
night.
West Dunellen is three miles from
Bound Brook and about 30 miles from
New York City. At the spot where the
disaster occurred there is sharp curve in
the Lehigh Valley tracks and steep cut
ting, but the accident was due in tho
first place to some terrible mistake i'll
train orders and in the second place to
another accident that occurred at Bound
Brook earlier in the day. The scenes
which accompanied the collision, the
sutferings of the injured and the panic
that reigned among the 400 passengers
were well nigh indescribable. The
blood stained wreck of tangled and
twisted iron and wood bore witness to
the truth of the general verdict of rail
road men that this was one of the worst
collisions III recent years.
A head-On collision on double track
road was made possible only by a freight
wreck, which occurred at Bound Brook
at 6 a. m, when the axle of a freight
car broke and nine cars were piled on
top of each other. This completely
blocked the eastbound track and all
through the morning Lehigh Valley
trains bound for New York switched
from their own track to the westbound
track, going over these rails from Bound
Brook to Newmarket, distance of six
miles, and changing at the latter place
back to their right side of the road.
Crowded With Excursionists.
Train No. 20, which lett Shamokin,
Pa at 7 q. m, was so heavy with
human freight that it had to be broken
into three sections. The first two sec
tions reached New York in safety The
third section was almost an hour late.
Its seven cars were crowded with 400
eXCursiOnists, most of them from Mount
Carmel and Shamokin, Mahanoy City,
Hazleton, Ashland and Pottsville, Pa.
The party was travelling under the
auspices of the business mems excur-
sion, all annual event which many
patrOni2e for a 3-days' visit to New
York. Not few of the excursionists
were coming to witness the Mccoy
Sharkey fight. Their train switched
over at Bound Brook and proceeded on
the westbound track. Meanwhile there
had been waiting at Newmarket local
train that plies regularly between New
York and Bound Brook. Owing to the
traffic all going on on one track, it was
almost an hour late. At last the train
dispatcher at South Plainfield gave it
permission to go. Just before reaching
West Dunellen, Engineer Rick slowed
his train down. Martin Brennan, the
signal man, threw up his arms and
waved them, as if to say there were nc
passengers, SO the local put on steam
and headed around the curve, going at
about % miles an hour.
Dozen Killed Outright.
In the cab of the excursion train was
George Prendergast, the engineer, with
his fireman, George Cheshire. They
saw the local as it started on the curve
With shrieking whistle and brakes
grinding sparks from the wheels, the
excursion train bore down to what
seemed certain destruction. The pas
Sengers, alarmed at the continued whis-
tie, opened the windows, mothers
snatched their children in their arms,
men started from their seats, but be-
fore they had time to find out what was
the matter they were hurled headlong,
knocked senseless and many killed out.
right. The two engines, from which
both crews had jumped, came together
with an awful crash. The excursion
train was probably going at about IL
miles an hour. The local engine, as if
aripped in it's faster flight, turned q
complete somersault and came crashing
\ down beside its now demolished OBJ
i struction. But its career was not ended
before it had damned the tender of the
excursion train almost from one end t.
the other Of the first car from Shamokin.
The tender stopped a few seats from
the rear door. The car, or what was
left of it, rolled owed over, carrying with
it the imbedded tender, the fragments
of a dozen bodies and the imprisoned
wounded, who had been carried by the
i Jagged iron on its relentless course
through the coach. 1t was in the first
car of the excursion train that all the
deaths and most of the casualties oc.