The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-05-19
A BLUNDER COSTS 25 LIVES,
Running 80 Miles an Hour a Train Crash,
es into Waiting Cars.

READING, Pa, May 15.-Through
The absence Of a signal light a rear
end collision Of passenger trains oc-
Cured about lO~o'clock-last-night on
the Philadelphia & Reading railroad
at Exeter, a small station six miles
below Reading, resulting in the loss of
twenty-five lives. Probably forty
others are badly injured and of these
many may die. The express train for
Philadelphia scheduled to leave Read
ing at $3.50 o'clock was about half an
hour late in.leaving. Meantime many
passengers on the train from Harris
burg wen aboard the PHILADELPHIA
express train while it stood in the
station at Reading, but as the number
OF harrisburg passengers was too
great TO be accommodated on the cx-
press train, it was decided to send an
extra train to Philadelphia to run as
a second section to the express. The
extraordinary travel from Harris
burg was due to the number of people
who Went to the state capital to wit
ness the exercises connected with the
unwilling of the Hartranft monument
there yesterday. The, second section
left here about twenty minutes after
the express train had departed. &:
At Exeter station the first train
stopped for orders and while backing
was crashed into by the second sec
ton, which was running about thirty
five miles an hour. The locomotive
plowed through the two rear cars, re-
ducing them to spiinters, and then
mounted the end Of the third car from
tho rear. The first car OF the second
train was also wrecked. Siany of the
passengers We're crushed to death in-
stantly. Norristown was the home OF
the late General Hartranft, and from
that town many had gone to Harris
burg to do honor to his memory.
The first train consisted of two cx-
press cars. a mail and baggage car, a
combination car, two day coaches, a
parlor car and q day coach, in the
order mentioned. The second train
consisted of six day coaches, one of
which had aboard a company Of the
Sixth regiment, national guards,
whose headquarters is at Norristown,
and another contained the members
OF the Montgomery hose company of
Norristown. The other four cars had
regular passengers, including about
twenty survivors Of the Fifty-hrst
Pennsylvania volunteers, Hartranft's
old command.
The first section Of fast express train
No. 2, which ordinarily runs through
oaGir~ " Iok%sl,, y;tho-
was held up at Exeter by a coal train
which "a using the ''cross over
switch there.
While the first section was slowly
backing, according to orders, the sec.
ond section, running from Harrisburg
to Philadelphia, and laden with ex-
cursionists who went to the capital to
see the Hartranft monument unveiled,
crashed into the zeal car of No. II,
wrecking the two day coaches and a
Pullman parlor car and crushing the
ives out of many of the passengers
The second section was allowing the
first section about q minutes head.
way and the engineer, it is presumed,
did not see the red light which men
on the first section claim was displayed
r -
at Exeter station.
At any rate the great engine came
along under full head Of steam and
with the momentum which the weight
Of q heavily laden train behind it
would naturally impart, crashed into
the rear OF the waiting train. The
rear day coach, the Pullman ahead
and the day coach forward Of the
Pullman were smashed to splinters.
The day coach behind the smoker and
the smoker itself escaped compare
lively uninjured and were later
brought into Philadelphia. a
(. The railroad at the scene OF the
accident runs ove a hollow and the
tracks are . n an embankment about
fifty feet high. Several passengers
We're hurled to the bottom OF the en-
bankment, but the cars all remained,
or the roadbed. The dead and wound.
ed were strewn in heaps in the wrecks
Of the two cars. Most OF the wound
ed were brought to Reading, but
many were sent to Norristown and
Pottsdam and some were taken to
Philadelphia. 't' ..al.
THE ,COMPANY's STATEMENT. ag
/ General Superintendent A. I. Swig-
art Of the reading Railway gave out q
statement, in which he places the
number killed in the wreck at twenty.
i've and those injured at afty. In his
statement Swigart says: ~ g ltt
"The cause Of the accident was the
pulling out of a drawbar on a coal
train which was taking the sidetrack
at Birdsboro to allow tho first section
of the express train to pass On &C.
count OF this drawbar having pulled
out considerable time was consumed
in coupling up the coal train and it
did not clear. Train No. 10 (the first
section) left Reading three minutes,
late and ran by the block at Exeter
the entire length of the train, but i'm
mediately backed the length of the
train while the conductor was receiv-
ing his orders at the telegraph office.
The block ahead then being clear,
the train startad, and just as it was
leaving the second section collided
With, the rearof the train" i
Women ought to make good legisla-
tors. Many a man can testify that 3
woman's word is law.
-F4i ~ q Il