The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1900-09-04
Fifteen WERE KILLED.
An Excursion Train Wrecked Near
Hatfield, Pa, Sunday.
1t Was Running at the Rate of
Thirty-Five Miles an Hour and
Crashed Into the Rear End
of a Milk Train.

Philadelphia, Sept. Fifteen per-
sons killed and IA others injured is
the appalling record of rear end
collision between an excursion train
and a milk train on the Bethlehem
branch of the Philadelphia & Read
ing railway Sunday morning at Hat
field, Pa, p miles north of this city.
Of the killed IL were passengers on
the excursion train and four were on
the milk train, which as stated was
standing at a water station when
wrecked by the excursion train.
The wrecked train consisted of ten
day coaches, and was the first section
of a large excursion made up of peo-
pie from Bethlehem, Allentown and
surrounding towns to Atlantic City.
This section carried only those per-
sons who lived in Bethlehem and Al
lentOwn, and left the union depot in
Bethlehem at sos a. m, exactly 35
latter train consisted of two milk
cars and two passenger coach IS and
had stopped at every station on the
road from Bethlehem en- route to
Philadelphia. AT 1854 the milk train
drew up at the milk platform at Hat
field, and in less than two minutes
the special excursion train, running
at the rate of 80 miles an hour crash
ed into the milk train. The 1ocomo-
tive ploughed through the two pas
senger coaches and crushed them as
if they were egg shells. The milk car
Immediately in front was also badly
wrecked.
The excursion train was a picture
of indescribable horror. The loco
motive was a mass of bent and broken
iron and firmly held the bodies of its
engineer and fireman beneath it's
great weight. Behind the engine six
of the ten cars are also a mass of
wreckage. The first car was broken
in twain and the other five. cars were
thrown on their sides, completely de-
molished. Nine persons were killed
in the first two cars and the others
in those coaches were badly manned.
As soon as the crash came a terri
BILE cry rose from the smashed cars
and those who had not been injured
quickly crawled or jumped from the
cars and went to the assistance os
the injured. Many were pinned down
by wreckage and had to be freed by
the liberal use of axes. With three
or four exceptions the dead were
killed instantly, the others dying on
their way to the hospitals. All the
injured were first taken to a shed. at
the Hatfield station and the dead were
removed to a barn. Messengers were
sent to the nearby villages for physi-
clans and a relief train was tele-
graphed for from Bethlehem. With
IS doctors and half a dozen nurses a
special train was sent from Bethle-
hem but before it reached the scene
of the wreck, it was signalled to re-
turn to Bethlehem as special, carry
ing nearly all the injured, had start
ed for that place. On the run from
Hatfield to the hospital three of the
injured died.
The special train arrived at Beth
lehem at 1880 and was met by fully
5000 persons, all clamoring to get a
bit of news of the wreck or trying to
learn whether loved ones were among
the victims. The news of the wreck
had reached Bethlehem at o'clock
and spread like wildfire. All the po-
licemen of the town were gathered at
the station and il was with great diff
ficulty that the injured were moved
TO the waiting ambulances ano other
vehicles which conveyed them to the
hospitals.
There are conflicting stories as tn
responsibility for the accident. One
version is that the. engineer of the
excursion train had been warned at
Souderton, the station above Hat
field, that a milk train was a few
minutes ahead of him. Another story
is that the train dispatcher's Office in
Philadelphia was at fault. The train
men refused to talk of the accident.
Fifteen hundred tickets had been
sold for the excursion to the seashore
and it was to have been the last of
the season.
Drowned in a Bear Trap.
cxyil1o I