The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1901-05-31

Collision of Rapidly Roaming
Trolley Cara

| albany, y. l.. May E.ItfStrp
cars racing for a switch while run
ming in opposite directions at the rate
of 40 miles an hour cost five lives, yes
terday afternoon. by n terrific coli
sion in which over forty prominent
people were injured. some fatally an,
others seriously.
The lobby of the local post Office
filed with dead and wounded; hys
~terical and children looking
for relatives and friends; surgeons
administering temporary relief, and
ambulanccs racing through the city
taking the wounded to hospitals. were
the early limitations of the accident
The scene of the accident was 4
point two miles out of Greenbush
on the line of the Albany a Hudson
railway. The point where the ears
met on the single track was at a
sharp curve. and so fast weN both
running. and so sudden was the COLI.
sion. that the motormen never had
time to put on the brakes before
south-bound car No. % had gone al
most clean through north-bound car
No. II, and hung on the edge Of a high
bluff. with its load of shrieking
MANNED humanity.
One motornian was pinioned ur
against the smashed front of the
solth-bound car with both legs sev.
cred. and killed instantly, while the
other lived but Il few minutes.
Fully 100 men. women and childrel
formed a struggling. shrieking pyra.
mid. mixed with blood, detached por.
tons Of human bodies aud the wreck.
age OF the cars.
Some of the more slightly injured
If The men extricated themselves and
began TO pull people out Of the rear
ends of the two cars. and almost ey'
eryone was taken out in this way and
yearly all were badly injured.
The few women and children whc
had escaped injury and death were
historical. and added their cries t.
the shrieks of the dying and mutt.
lated.
Men. with broken arms and bones
iislocated Joints and bloody heads anc
faces. trieu 10 assist others who were
more helpless.
Help he'd been summoned from East
G%reenbush and vicinity. and in a liz
tie time the bruised mass of human
ity. with the mutilated dead for a
.gruesome company, We're loaded on
extra cars and taken to Albany. There
Smbulances and physicians had been
and the post Office turned
into a morgue and hospital. AS fast
as the physicians could temporarily
fix up the wounded they were taken
to their homes or 10 hospitals.
With 10th motormen killed it was
hard 10 get at the real cause of the
accident, but it is pretty well de-
termined that it was caused by an at
tempt of the south-bound car to reach
a second switch instead of waiting fo-
the north-bound car at the ..rst sid
ing.
The carr weigh Is tons each. and
are the largest electric cars built, but
so frightfui was the crash that both
EARS were torn almost TO splinters.
Both ears were filled with pleasure
seekers returning from the new recre.
alton grounds that the railway had
just opened. The so%uth-bound car lett
Albany ut 400 o'clock and the acct.
dent occurred mt five o'clock.
The cars on the line were running
at switch headway-that is, as a ca
reached q siding switch it was SUD-
posed TO wait until another going iE
the opposite direction. passed. The
motorman of the south-bound car
reached one of the switches. but see-
ing no nortL-bound car, decided 10
take chances and go to the next sid
ing. 1t was ut a curve between that
the two cars met.