The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-19
CRUSHED TO DEATH
FIVE MEN KILLED IN THE RAPID
TRANSIT TUNNEL.
DEEP DOWN IN THE EARTH
TREMENDOUS MASS of ROCK FELL
UPON THEM.

The Mass Was 63x11x1o Feet ana
Weighed $50 Tons--TerribIe Scene
of Excitement Among the Work
ers Followed It's FaII-TyvO of the
Bodies Had to Be Blown Out by
Dynamite-The wreckage Blown
TO Pieces and No More Bodies
Found.
New York, Oct 1s.-Five men were
killed and two injured this morning
when an enormous mass of rock caved
from the side and roof of the Rapii
Transit tunnel, in course of construc-
ton on Broadway about the line of
One Hundred and Sixty-fourth street,
in this city.
The dead are: Peter, IS years
old; Timothy Kelleher, so years old:
John Goronsky; Patrick Madden, fore
man Of the muckers; Luigi Danife, 25
years old.
The injured are: Domenico dePetro,
taken to the hospital with scalp wound
and broken leg; Italian laborer, name
unknown, injured about the left foot.
The section of the tunnel where the
cave-in occurred is los feet below the
surface. A shaft leads to the tunnel
ard from the shaft headings extend
north and south, each being about 700
feet long. The accident occurred in the
south heading of the tunnel about $40
feet from the shaft A gang of twenty
rock drillers was working in the ex-
.treme south end of the heading, and
about fifty feet from the end a gang
made up of twenty muckers and fore
man was removing the debris produced
by the blasting.
Fell without warning.
Without warning. the mass of rock.
% feet long, eleven feet wide and ten
teet nigh, and Weighing about $50 tons,
fell with tremendous crash directly
where the muckers were working. al
most closing the tunnel and creating
a panic among the two or three hun
dred men at work in other sections.
Great clouds of dust filled the whole
excavations. The frightened men. most
OF them Italians, in wild excitement
ana finding themselves cut off. as they
thought, made wild efforts to escape
their cries adding to the confusion and
horror. Before long, however, all made
their way to the. street and the work
OF rescuing the muckers was commenc-
ed. .'fA,3 gg.
At first it was supposed that at least
dozen men had been buried under
the debris. Word of the accident had
been quickly spread and soon an aflx-
ious crowd gathered around the shaft
scores of men and women CRYING and
wringing their hands while the rescu-
ers worked with tremendous energy TO
reach the entombed workmen.
De Petro and the unknown italian
were not buried under the mass of rock
and were the first found.
Had to Blast Them Out.
When the rescuing party began to
remove the rock they found the man
gled bodies of O'Hara, Kelleher and
Goronsky. The bodies of Madden and
DANTE were buried under masses of
rock which could not be moved, and
could not be extricated, although they
were in plain sight. 1t was the
work of hours to drill the holes and
charge them. At 245 o'clock in the
afternoon the charges were fired, with
the result that the body of Foreman
Madden was removed by piecemeal.
The next blast uncovered the body of
Dante.
o. ". v. Powers, senior assistant en-
gineer in charge of the contract, said
that the fall of the rock would in no
way interfere with the safety of the
tunnel.
Tonight it was said that the fallen
mass of rock had been blown to pieces
and that no more bodies had been found
and it is not believed that any more
lives were lost.
Section Bcss Arrested.
Owen BLY,, the section boss. who was
in charge of that portion of the tun-
mel, was placed under arrest He was
later taken to the Harlem police court
and remanded to the coroner's Office,
where Coroner yucca paroled him until
tomorrow.