The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-01
THREE MEN ARE KILLED.
HEAD ON COLLISION ON CONSOLE
 DATED ROAD.
Freight Trains on Berkshire Division Collide at Long Hill-Engineer of the Extra Was at Fault-He Is Badly In jured Two New Haven Men Killed.

Bridgeport, Sept. 3O.-In the worst
 wreck, with one exception, in the his- tory of the Berkshire division of the
 New York, New Haven and Hartford
 railroad, three trainmen were killed and three others badly injured this
 morning. Two freight trains, the reg
 ular north bound, which left Bridge
 port early this morning in charge of Conductor John Mills, of this city, and
 the other, known as the Erie extra,
 south bound, collided on a curve a quarter of a mile south of Long Hill station while moving at full speed. The engineer of the extra. admits that he
 was to blame for the collision, saying
 that he forgot that he should have waited on a siding at Stepney, two
 miles north of Long Hill, for the regu- lar.
 The dead are: Edward Burns. Falls Village, engineer of the regular train,
 aged forty and single; Paul Gustafson, New Haven, fireman of the extra, aged
 thirty, and Joseph Connolly, of No. AZ
 Putnam street, New Haven, head
 brakeman of the extra, aged thirty-two
 and married.
 The injured are: Roy l.. Pitcher, Falls Village, fireman of the regular, will lose
 right foot; George w. Holt Pittsfield,
 Mass, engineer of the extra, right hand
 cut off; Robert Christmas, Bridgeport,
 brakeman on regular train, internally
 injured.
 The point where the collision occur
 red Is one of series of curves close together and neither engineer could see
 any distance ahead. As the extra, a
 heavy train of thirty-three cars, was
 on long down grade the impact when
 the trains met was tremendous and the
 engines and twelve cars were reduced to mere mass of wreckage piled high at the bottom of a thirty-foot cliff,
 which rises close beside the track at this point Three cars appear to have
 gone completely over the engine of the
 extra. stripping off the boiler jacket and smokestack.
 Fireman Pitcher says that just be- fore the crash Engineer Burns shouted,
 Get out boy, quick" Pitcher Jumped, but struck against the cliff and was
 thrown back under the wreckage. The
 engineer of the extra saved himself also
 by jumping.
 | Brakeman Christmas, the other man
 who was injured, was sorting freight | in box car and when the car was tel escoped he was thrown through the | roof.
 l The body of Fireman Gustafson was not taken from the wreckage until
 nearly D. m. At 10 o'clock the wreck l lao al the debris over Engineer Hot's engihe
 to see the head and hands of Fireman | Gustafson. The remains of Engineer
 Burns were recovered late in the after l noon These bodies are badly mangled. Fireman Gustafson's head showed that part of the body was scalded by es- icaping steam.
 Although the accident occurred at 5:1O
 in the morning, the Interruption of tel egraph communication caused much
 delay and it was not until Il o'clock that the injured men reached the hos pital here
 i It is expected that it will require | twelve hours work at least before the track can be cleared of the wreckage. | Trains now have to make long de- ] tour.
 The body of Brakeman Connolly was , taken from the wreck early this fore noon.
 Pending the arrival of the hospital ambulance the injured were looked af- ter by Dr. Seth Hill of Stepney. | The most fortunate escape experi- enced by any man aboard either train
 was that of J. D. Nichols, of Brattle- boro. Vt. MT. Nichols, ,<pwho Is big Vermonter of the type that made the
 Green Mountain state famous, is in the employ of ~ J. G. Avery, of Shelburne
 Falls, Mass, who owns prize OK. Nhe animal weighs over 4,000 pounds and MT. Nichols was on the way from AL lentown, Pa, to Newtown to exhibit 1t
 at the fair at that place. The OK was in | palace stock car right next to the engine of the north bound train, and MT. Nichols was asleep on pile of hay at the forward end of the car when the i train left Bridgeport. The car was tel escoped and half it's roof and both ends torn off, but neither OK nor man was | injured in the least.
 q went to sleep just before we left Bridgeport" MT. Nichols said, and the
 next I knew I was standing on top of the car My lantern was in my right hand and it was pretty well smashed. - -----------------------