Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-05-27

ALBANY, N. T., May 26.-Electric
cars racing for a switch, while running
In opposite directions, at the rate of
forty miles an hour, cost five lives This
afternoon by a terrific collision in which
over forty prominent persons were in
Jured, some fatally and others seriously.
The lobby of the local p~ostofice, fill
e. with dead and wounded, hysterical
women and children looking for rela-
tives and friends, surgeons administer
ing temporary relief, and ambulances
racing through the city taking the
wounded to hospitals, were the early
limitations of the accident.
The scene of-the accident was a point
about two miles out of Greenbush, on
the line of the Albany & 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 motor
men never had time to put on the
brakes before south-bound car No. %
had gone almost clean through north
bound car No. II, and hung on the edge
of a high bluff. with it's load of Shrek
ing, manned humanity. One motorman
was ~pinioned up against the smashed
front of the south-bound car with both
legs several and killed instantly, while
the other one lived but a few minutes.
Fully me hundred and twenty men,
women and children formed a strug-
CLING. shocking pyramid, mixed with
hood, detached portions of human
bodies and the wreckage of the cars.
Some of the mors slightly injured of
the men extricated themselves and began
to pun 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 women and children who had
escaped injury and death were hysterical
and added their cries to the shrieks of
the dying and mutilated. Men with
broken arms and bones, dislocated joints
and bloody heads and faces tried TO assist
~ VIM NNlDitSS- IlrtR
had been summoned from East Greenbush
and vicinity, and in a little time the
bruised mass of humanity. with the mu-
tilated dead for a gruesome and silent
company were loaded on extra cars and
taken to Albany. There ambulances and
physicians had been summoned and the
postofice turned into a morgue and hos
pital. AS fast as the physicians could
" 49,, -, I'll - - 49,
taken to their homes or to the hospitals.
With both motornen killed. it was hard
to get at the real cause of the accident,
but 1t is pretty weil determined that 1t
was caused by an attempt Of the SOUTH
bound car 10 reach the second switch in
stead of waiting for the north bound car
at the first siding.
The cars weigh fifteen tons each and are
Z the largest electric cars built, but so
frightful was the crash that both cars
were torn almost 10 splinters. Both cars
were filled with Sunday pleasure seekers
: returning from the new recreation grounds
that the railway had Just cpened. The
south-bound car left Albany at 4:9O and
the accident occurred at 5 o'clock. The
cars on the line were running at switch
Roadway. that is, as a car reached a sd
ing switch it was supposed to wait until
another going in the opposite direction
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.
1t was at a curve that the two cars met.
Among the passengers on the south
bound car was Deputy Supt. Howard j.
Rogers. OF the State department of pub
lie Instruction. He was accompanied By
Mrs. Rogers and their young son and
daughter. all of whom were slightly in
jured with the exception of the laughter.
Speaking Of the accident, Mr.. Rogers
said:
My recollection of what happened as
the cars came together Is rather vague.
We were proceeding southwark at a very
rapid rate of speed. our car being well
filed with passengers, including many
women and children. Fortunately. mv
! wife. my children and y4elf, we're seated
in the rear OF the car. The car, | shouId
say. accommodated between seventv-ave
aid ) hundred people. The sccidenf -
CURED after We had passe6 I svfteh. -