The Penn's Grove record., 1901-05-31
FATAL WRECK NEAR ALBANY
Electric Cars Going Forty Miles an
Hour Come Together.
BOTH WERE RACINGF0R ASWlTCH

At Least 100 Men, wom.l and Children
Were Hurled Together in a Mass OF
Wrcckage on the New Albany Line
Five Killed Outright and Over Forty
Severely Injured-A Pathetic Incident
Albany, N. Y.-Five persons were
killed and over forty were seriously in.
jured in a collision between two cleo
trio cars which were racing for a
switch at forty miles an hour from op.
posite directions. The dead are: Maud
Kellogg, of Round Lake; David Ma.
honey, mate of the Dean Richmond;
William Nichols, motorman of Car No.
II; Frank Smith, motorman of Car No.
%, and Annie Roonie, Of Stuyvesant
Falls.
The scene of the accident is a point
about two miles out of Greenbush, on
the line of the Albany and Hudson
hallway, The point where the cars
met on the single track was at a sharp
curve, Il so fast were both running
and so sudden was the collision that
the mOtormen mad not time to put on
the brakes before south-bound Car No.
Y 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 died in
stantly, while the other one lived but
q few minutes.
Fully 100 men, women and children
formed a huge, struggling, shrieking
pyramid, mixed with the wreckage of
the cars. Some of the less seriously
injured of the men eXtricated them
selves, and began to pull people out of
the rear ends of the two cars, and al
most every one taken out in this way
was badly injured. The scenes were
heartrending. The few women and
children who had escaped injury and
death were hysterical, and added their
cries to the shrieks of the dying and
mutiilated. Men with broken arms
and bones. 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 mutilated dead were loaded
on extra ears and taken to Albany.
There ambulancesh had been summoned
and the postoffice was turned into n
morgue and hospital. AS fast as the
physicians could temporarily treat the
wounded they were taken to their
homes or to the hospitals in carriages
or hospital ambulances.
With both motormen killed it was
hard to get at the real II of the ac-
cident, but 1t is practically determined
that it was caused by an attempt of
the south-bound car to reach q second
switch, instead of waiting for the
north-bound at the first siding.
The cars weigh fifteen tons each,
and are the largest electric cars built,
but so frlghtful was the crash that
both cars were torn almost to splint-
ers. The ears on the line were running
at switch Roadway, that is, as a car
reached a siding switch it was sup
posed to wait until another going in
the opposite direction passed. The
motorman of the south-bound car
reached one of the switches, but see
ing no n%orth-bound car decided TO take
chances and go on to the next. 1t was
at the curve between that the two cars
met.
One of the pathetic incidents of the
disaster was the death Of Maude KEEL
logg, of Round Lake. She was on the
south bound car with her fiance,
George c. Barry, of Troy, and Mr..
Barry's father and sister. When the
crash came she was crushed to death
almost instantly. Near her, pinned
In by broken wreckage, lay her sweet
heart. Frantically he tried to reach
her, his own agonies from internal in
juries forgotten. Finding he could
not move, he appealed to his father,
who was .extricating himself, but the
girl was dead. On the way to the city
in the car he pleaded with those at
tending him to let him die and join his
sweetheart. He probably will obtain
his wish, for his injuries We're pro-
nounced fatal.
The company has been operating its
line for about a year. 1t is the longest
stretch of third-rail system in the Uni
ted States, extending from Albany TO
Hudson. The motive power is oh
tanned from %Stuyvesant Falls, and IS
sufficiently strong to run the cars at Il
high rate of speed, as has been demon