The Bemidji pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Beltrami County, Minn.) 1896-1917, 1901-05-30
RACE ENDS IN UEATHt
TERRIFIC COLLISION IN, WHICH
FIVE LIVES WE'RE LOST.

TERRIFIC COLLISION IN WHICH I
FIVE LIVES WE'RE LOST.
Over Forty Prominent Peopfe In
jured, some Fatally andi others
seriousIy--Electric Cars Race for
switch While Running In OPP
posite Directions Passengers 4
Form n Struggling, shrieldng
s pyramid, Mixed with Hood, De-
tncled Portions of Human Bodies
and abe Wreckage Of the Cars.
Albany, N. X, May %. Electric cars.
racing for a switch while running in
opposite directions at the rate OF forty
miles an hour, cost five lives, yester-a
day afternoon by terrific collision IN I.
which over forty prominent people /,
were injured, some fatally andfothers !
seriously. The lobby Of the local post
Office filled with dead and wounded,
,ysterical women and children looking
for relatives and friends, surgeons adj
ministering temporary relief and am
balances racing through the city, taxi
ing the wounded to hospitals We're the \
early intimations Of the accident,
The scene of the accident was point
about two miles out Of Green Bush, on
the lire Of the Albany g. Hudson rail-
way. The point where the cars met ON
the single track was at a sharp curve
and SO fast were both running and SO
sudden was the collision that the mo-
torman never had time to put on the
brakes before south bound car No. ~
had gone almost clean through north
bound car No IL, and hung on the edge 4
of a high bluff with its load of
Shrieking, Manned Humanity.
One rnotorman was pinioned up against
the smashed front of the south bound
car with both legs severed and Instant
5ly killed, while the other one. lived g
few minutes. Fully 100 men. women
and children formed a struggling,
shrieking pyramid, mixed with blood
detached portions of human bodies ands
the wreckage Of the cars.
Some Of the more slightly injured OF
the men extricated themselves and be-e
gan to pull people out Of the rear ends
of the two cars, and almost every one
was taken out in this way and nearly
all were badly injured. The few vo--
men and children who had escaped I'M
jury and death were hysterical and
added their cries to the shrieks OF theH
dying and mutilated. Men with broken
arms and bones and dislocated joints
and bloody heads and faces, tried to.
assist others who were more helpless.
Help had been summoned from East
Greenbush and vicinity and in a little
time the bruised mass of humanity
with the nnutilated dead for a gruesome
and silent company were loaded on ext
ira cars and taken to Albany. There
anbulances and physicians had BEEN
summoned and the postofffce turned II
into a morgue and hospital. AS fast
az the physicians could temporarily
fix UP the wounded they were taken to-
their homes or to the hospitals.
MotOrnnn Took Chances.
with both n1Otornfen killed IT was
hard to get at the real cause OF the
accident. but It was pretty well de-
termined that it was caused by an at-Es
tempt of the south bound car to reach
a second switch instead of waiting Tor
the north bound car at the first siding.
The cars weigh fifteen tons each and
are the largest electric cars built, but
so frightful was the crash that both
cars were torn almost to splinters.
Both cars were filed with Sunday
pleasure seekers returning from the
new recreation grounds that the rail-
way had just opened. The cars on the
line were running at switch Roadway
that is, as a car reached siding
switch it was supposed to wait until
another going in the opposite direc-
ton passed. The motorman Of the
south bound car reached one Of the
switches, but seeing no north bound
car, decided to take chances and go on
to the next siding. It was at a curve
between that the two cars met.
tta 70 sFs53