Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-08-07
TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE DROPPED INTO THE DEEP WATER.

cally known as Peck's pond, over which
the trestle was erected
\ The extension line was built by the
Bridgeport Traction Company 1t was
opened to traffic only last Thursday In
the light Of Sundays awful experience
1t would seem that 1t was opened before
| 1t was ready for traffic. Indeed. no one
will be surprised if the coroner's in
quest shows that 1t should never haze
| been opened
On Its way to Shelton's this new lire
runs over a three-pier bridge across
Peck's pond. The bridge is a new piece
of work, built by the Berlin Iron Bridge
Company, but the tracking work I un-
tderstood to have been put down by the
railroad company. It had no guard
rails on the side and the only thing to
check car in case of derailment was a
wooden beam on either side parallel
with the tracks. This fiimsy affair was
all too powerless to check derailment,
as the CHASTITY work of Sunday showed
i Peck's pond is a half-dried marsh. 1t
was formerly a small lake that had
been drained. The bottom now con-
lsists of mud and half hardened soil, and
the bed of the lake lies fifty feet below
the rails The depth Of the cars fall, as
stated, measures this space.
The Indicator OF the car when 1t
passed through Stratford, half way be-
tween Bridgeport and Peck's pond,
showed that forty-seven fares of Sun
day excursionists had been rung up,
but there were eight fewer than that
lmany passengers on the car at the time
lof the accident.
The passengers We're joyful Sunday
lparty of men, women and children.
Some of them We're prominent citizens
Icf Bridgeport. All We're respectable and
wel-to-do persons.
The car ran onto the bridge at high
speed down slight declivity. The rails
on the land where they were supposed
ito join to the bridge were insecure. This
gave the car violent bounding mo-
ton. 1t was four-wheeled car, and
the up and down motion was so violent
that women and children yere heard to
scream by persons living near before
the car had actually left the rails.
The derailment occurred when the car
was thirty feet from the land. The
jump of the car was to the right. 1t
ran over the ties with violent humping
for thirty feet more, while the passen-
gers screamed in terror. Some OF them
jumped to the left side of the bridge
A few. including Carroll, the conductor,
jumped to the right just before the car
plunged to the bottom of the dred-up
| lake.
The passengers. like rats in trap
could make no move. AS the car
plunged down the motorman stood at
his post. The shrieks of the passen-
gers dashing downward to sudden death
will never leave the minds of those who
heard them.
/ AS the car plunged 1t turned, and
when 1t reached the bottom it was up
side down. The top. the fiimsiest part
! o the heavy vehicle. struck first and
struck with crash that could be heard
for long distance.
| When the car fell thus, bottom up
ward. the heavy trucks crashed down
through the floor upon the imprisoned
po sengers. Had the fall of fifty feet
not been sufficient to kill. the trucks,
weighing several tons, We're enough to
more than complete the work.
There were only few means from
passengers. Few were left to moan
Women Were found dead, clasping their
children to their bosoms. and men were
dug out, huddled and driven into the
mud upt to their arms.
The work of rescue of the injured and
recovery of the dead was not prompt in
beginning. owing to the difficulties pre-
scented by the character of the ground
The rescuers had to go down a steep
bank and pass on planks to where the
wrecked car lay half buried.
| The living were first removed. In all
nearly twenty We're still alive when
taken from beneath the car Some of
these afterward died. Those not dead
We're taken to the main hospital at
Bridgeport.
| The bodies of the killed were for the
most part taken to the town hall of
Stratford. There they were laid out in
three rows on piles of hay and straw
to await Identification. In many in
stances they had been terribly MANNED
Some had an expression on their faces
as If they had fallen asleep. A steady
stream OF persons passea through the
building to seek to identify the victims.
All but three had been identified by
midnight.
TWENTY PERSONS DROWNED.