The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-10
Collision ON
Lehig,h Road.
THIRTEEN KILLED.
Accident Said to Be Due to
Blunder in Orders.

~~-O-A NNA"SNAA WV Qel<oOSAASNL u VI
the Lehigh Valley Railroad at West
Dunellen. N. j., at 12.47 p, m., today,
10 persons were killed and over 25 were
injured
The dead are:
Martin keenan,, hotel keeper, Mount
Carmel Pa.
W. H. Hinkle. contractor, Mount Car
mel
Jacob Heller, tailor, Mount Carmel.
H. E. Wiekell, Mount Carmel.
Frank Fisher. shoe dealer of Mount
Carmel.
w. H. Leader, dry goods dealer of
Mount Carmel.
Frank Mandel, Shamokin, Pa.
Theodore Stiklakohn of Shamskin.
Abner S. Keifer, carpet dealer, Potts
vile. Pa.
w. II. Markell, Shamolxin.
James Jarvis, IL years old, Mount
Carmel
Two unidentified women
The list of injured includes over 20
persons and several of these cannot
live.
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 cutting, but the accident was due
in the first place to some mistake in
train orders, and in the second place to
another accident that occurred at
Bound Brock earlier in the day.
The scenes which accompanied the
collision, the sufferings of the injured
and the panic that reigned among the
400 passengers We're well night indie
scribable.
The blood-stained wreck of tangled
and twisted iron, and wood, that was
still on the railroad tracks tonight bore
witness to the truth of the general YER
diet of railroad men, that this was one
of the worst collisions in recent years.
The head-on collision on q double
track was made possible by a freight
wreck, which occurred at Bound Brook
at o'clock this morning, when the axle
of freight car broke and nine cars
were piled on top of each other. This
completely blocked the east bound track
and all through the morning Lehigh
Valley trains bound for New York
switched from their own track to the
west bound track, going over these rails
from Bound Crook to New Market, a
distance Of six miles, and changing at
the latter place back to their right side
of the track
To permit this mode Of traffic all west
bound trains were held at South Plain
field until their own line was clear of
trains going in the opposite direc
ton.
Train No. 90. which left Shamokin,
Pa, at o'clock a. m, was SO heavy
with human freight that it had to be
broken into three sections. The first
two sections arrived at Bound Brook,
switched over to the other track,
switched back at New Market, and
reached New York in safety.
The third section of this train was
almost an hour late. Its seven cars
were crowded with 400 excursionistS,
most Of them from Mount Carmel and
Shamokir, Mahony City, Hazehon, Ash
land and Pottsville, Pa. The party
was travelling under the auspices of
the Business Mems excursion, an an
nual affair, which many patronize for
three days visit to New York.
Their train switched over at Bound
Brook and proceeded, like the proceed
ing sections on the west bound track.
Meanwhile there had been waiting at
New Market, a local train that plies
regularly between New York and
Bound Brook. Its number on the
schedule is Il, and it is due in Bound
Brook at 1853 O'Clock. Owing to the
traffic all going on one track, it was al
most an hour late.
At last the train dispatcher at South
Plainfleld gave 1t permission to go. Just
before reaching West Dunnellen, En-
gineer Rick slowed his train down, be-
cause the train stops there for passen-
gers If there are any. Martin Brennan.
the signal man, threw up his arms and
waved them, as if to say there We're no
passengers, so the local put on steam
and headed round the curve going at
about rs miles an hour There were
only four passengers on the local.
In the cab of the excursion train en-
CINE was James Prendergast, 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
weeis, the excursion train bore down
to what seemed certain destruction
The passengers alarmed at the con-
tinued whistllng, opened the windows,
mothers clasped their children in their
arms, men started from their seats but
before they had time to find out what
was the matter they were hurled
headlongi Knocked senseless and many
killed outright
The excursion train was probably go
ing at about Is miles an hour. The
local engine turned a complete SOM
snersaut and came crashing down be-
side its demolished obstruction. But
its career was not ended before it
had damned the tender of the eXcur-
sion train engine almost from one
end to the other of the first car from
Shamokin. The tender stopped a lew
seats from the rear door; the car, or
what was left Of it, rolled over, carry
ing with II the imbedded tender, the
fragments of a dozen bodies and the
imprisoned wounded, who had been
carried with the Jagged iron on It's
course through the coach. 1t was IN
this first car of the excursion train
that all the deaths and most Of the
casualties occurred.
The other cars, though their occu-
pants were badly shaken, stayed on
the track.
a few minutes before the trains
crashed, George Weidman Of Dunnel-
len had tethered his coal wagon to
post at the crossing a few yards from
where the engines met. 81 saw them
coming" he said, the east bound
whistllng like mad. and the local com
Ing around the corner. l waved nay