Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1901-05-30

Albany. n. Y. May 2S.-Electric cars
racing for a switch while running III
opposite directions at the rate OF 1orty
miles an hour. cost five lives yester-
dav afternoon by a terrific collision IN
which over forty prominent people
were INJURED. some fatally and others
seriously. The lobby of the local post
office filed with dead and
hysterical women and children looking
for relatives and friends, surgeons ad-
ministering temporary relief and am
balances racing through the city, AK
Ing the wounded to hospitals, were the
early intimations of the accident.
The scene of the accident was a point
about two miles out of Green Bush, on
the line of the Albany & Huosoh ran
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 n mo-
torman 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 its load of
Shrieking, Manned Humanity.
One motorman was pinioned up against
the smashed front of the south-bound
car with both legs severed and Instant
ly killed, while the other one lived a
few minutes. Fully 100 men. women
and children formed a struggling,
shrieking pyramid. mixed with blood,
detached portions of human bodies and
the wreckage of the cars.
Some of the more slightly injured or
the men extricated themselves and be-
gan to pull people out Of the rear ends
Of the two cars, and almost every n
was taken out in this way and nearly
all were badly injured. The few wo-
men and children who had escaped in
Jury and death were hysterical and
added their cries to the shrieks of the
dying and mutilated. Men with broken
arms and bones and d~islocated 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 mutilated dead for a gruesome
anu SlleIl company were lOducu oI CA
ira cars and taken to Albany. There
~ambulances and physicians had been
summoned and the postoffice turned
Into a morgue and hospital. AS fast
as the physicians could temporarily
fix up the wounded they were taken to
their homes or to the hospitals.
Motorman Took Chances.
With both motormen killed it was
hard to get at the real cause Of the
accident, but 1t was pretty well de-
termined that II was caused by an at,
tempt Of the south-bound car to reach
q second switch instead Of waiting for
the north-bound car at the first siding.
The cars weigh fifteen tons each and
are the largest electric cars built, but
80 frightful was the crash tina 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 a 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. 1t was at a curve
between that the two cars met.