The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1901-06-01

Albany, N. Y, May 2o.-Electflc cdAS
racing for a switch while running IN
opposite directions at the rate of forty
miles an hour, cost five lives yester-
day 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 filled with dead and wounded,
historical women and children looking
for relatives and friends, surgeons ad-
ministering temporary relief n am
balances racing through. the city, TAX
ing the wounded to hospitals, were the
early intimations of he accident.
The scene of the accident was a point
about two miles out of Green Bush, 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 h a h mo-
torman never had time to put on the
brakes before south-bound car Nc. ~
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 H~ufaantty.
One motorman was pinioned up against
the smashed front of the scuth-bound
car with both legs severed and instant.
" killed, while the other ore lived a
few minutes. Fully 120 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 OF
the men extricated themselves and be-
gan to pull people u 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 t o the shr;exs Of the
dying and mut:.:;ted. Men with broken
arms and bones aud d,sloca:ed 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 muti]ated dead Cor @ gruesome
and silent company were loaded on ex-
ira cars and taken to Albany. There
ambulances and physicians had been
summoned and the p%cstoslce turned
into q morgue and hospital. AS fast
as the physicians could temporarily
fix up the wounded they were taken to
their homes or to the hospitals.
Motorn,an Took Chances.
With both motormen killed it wa
hard to get at the real Of the
accident. but It was pretty well de-
termined that 1t was caused by an at,
tempt Of the south-bound q to reach
a 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
so frightful was the crash that both
cars were torn almost to splinters.
Both cars were filled 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 a 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. It was at a curve
between that the two Ears met.