The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-10

A Terribly Fatal Mistake Made in Train 0rders-Some
One Blundered "A Horrible Scene Of Mangled and
Il Bleeding Bodies twenty-five Injured

rear door. The car, or what was left
| OF if, rolled over, carrying with 1t the
| imbedded tender the fragments of a
| dozen bodies and the imprisoned wound
| ed. who had been carried with the
| jagged iron on it's relentless course
| through the coach.
| 1t was in the first car of the eXcur
sion train that all the deaths and most
of the casualties occurred. The other
cars, though their occupants were
badly shaken up. stayed on the track,
and were in condition to be hauled off.
The baggage car in the front of the
local train was rather badly smashed
up.
From Dunellen, Bound Brook and
other places surgeons We're quickly
summoned. They came over the Cen
trail railroad of New Jersey, whose
tracks ran parallel with the hehigh at
this point, about 500 yards distant.
Wrecking trains were quickly on hand.
AS the dead We're taken from the de-
molished car they were put in the rear
cars of the excursion train and taken
to Bound Brook, where a coroner's in
quest was held tonight The injured
were put in the cars of the local train.
Twenty-one were taken to the Plain
field hospital, while the less seriously
injured were sent on to Jersey City and
New York.
Engineer PrenderGast, who weighs al
most 800 pounds, jumped too late. He
was caught under the engine. and for
three hours lay in frightful agony.
When at last huge crane lifted the
iron off his body he was found so badly
injured that he is expected to die. The
loss of life inflicted upon his train
would probably have been nothing like
what it was had it not been for the
fact that at Mauch Chunk the baggage
car of the excursion train was found TO
have a hot box and was taken off, thus
leaving the crowded day coach next to
the engine. If this coach had retained
the position it held when the train left
Shamokin probably only a few lives
would have been lost. Engineer Rick,
of the local. was found on the tracks so
badly injured that little hope was en-
tertained of his recovery. Despite the
blood that flowed from his mouth Rick
gureled out:
Some one gave wrong orders. know
how it happened, but I can not speak
now"
In this connection w. o. Sprigg, the
superintendent of the eastern division
of the Lehigh Valley road, said: Tine
accident is evidently due to a blunder in
orders
The train dispatcher at Easton, who
has charge of the territory, is said to
have wired to the operator at South
Plainfeld to let No. II, the local, come
through. but later there came a mes
sage from Easton to hold ali west
bound trains. 1t is understood the lat
ter message was overlooked. Some
say it was not handed to the operator,
but whichever way it was the west
bound train was allowed on it's track.
DR.. Brakely of Dunellen was one of the
first on the scene. He said:
We got into the overturned car and
CROPPED among the debris for the dead.
Teeth, arms, brains, splintered wood
and twisted iron were mixed up in a
mass. The wounded, most Of them
suffering from broken legs, We're all
damned together at the other end.
Some we got out piecemeal. Among the
ruins we found a baby few months
old without clothes. We thought it
was dead, and laid it on the bank be-
side the half dozen other mangled bod
les we had extricated Just as I was
leaving, I noticed signs of life. The
baby was alive, and a careful eXamina-
ton showed it had sustained only a
bruse on the head. We put it in the
car for Plainfield.'
reca of Mount Carmel, who was ac
companied on the train by her hus
band, two young sons and the infant
in question.
AS the daylight began to die, huge
bonfires made of the car debris were
lighted by the side of the track, and by
the glare of their flames the wrecking
crews worked their ponderous derricks.