The sun., 1903-11-20
3 KILLED IN ELEVATED CRASH,
SEVEN HURT AND MANY IN DAN
GER FROM THIRD RAIL FLAMES.
Motormsn Drove Train Into Stalled Cars
Visible Five Blocks Away--COndu
tor Gave Life I'm Brave Effort TO
save Others-Passengers Walk to sta
ton With Fire Flashing About Them.

Two persons were killed and nine were
IN iured in a rear-end collision on the Fifth
avenue elevated railroad, between Twenty
ninth and Thirtieth streets, Brooklyn,
shortly after O'Clock yesterday afternoon
The dead were:
CAHuL, JOIN, motorman. o5s Fireth street.
RrOoklyn
CAHfL. PATRICK mo relation to John con.
duc,or, 4G6 Prospect avenue Brooklyn.
The injured are
COOK. WILLIAM. % years old. railroad heater
tender OF 5?2 Central avenue Brooklyn; confusion
OF Right arm and side and fractured right leg taken
TO the Norwegian Hospital.
CURTIS JOHN. lawyer. OF Nayesnk Highlands
\. H. suffered shock: remained In drug
store for Two hours and was then taken home.
DAYTON. WARREN, OF 242 Fifty fifth street. Brook
yn: guard OH Bay Ridge train; fractured thigh
and Internal Injuries resulting from fall to the
street from railroad structure: taken TO the Nor
v,glan Hospital: Will probably die.
uorGi-Ass. RALPH, - years old. OF 274 Fourteenth
street Brooklyn contuslons OF right side and cut
over eye; went home.
FRIEDMAN. MORRIS % years old OF s2i Henry
street Manhattan: contuSions of right leg and
right arm and cut over right eye: taken to the Nor
scglan Hospital and went home later
HART CHARLES, contractor and builder, OF 457
Tilty seventh street Brooklyn: contusons of knee
and injuries TO back taken to the Norwegian Hos
pllal.
ScHLASo. PHILIP railroad heater tender, OF 81,
Graham avenue Brooklyn: injuries to right side
and back; taken to the Norwegian Hospital.
STONE NORRIS, real estate dealer of 10 West ll3th
street. Manhattan: injuries to back: treated by
Ambulance Surgeon Huiseman and went home.
WoKIASsKY. NATHAN % years old OF 63 East
Fourth street Manhattan broken wrist and con
tusIons OF right leg treated by Ambulance Surgeon
Iiulseman and went home
The collision was very much like that
which cost SO many lives in the Park avenue
tunnel in the winter of 1901. For the tunnel
accident there was an explanation 1t may
have been an unsatisfactory explanation,
but ii was explained.
Why lives should have been lost and
many persons injured in this rear-end
collision on an elevated railroad, when the
afterglow of sunset made it still fairly
light will be, In all probability. never ex-
planned. The man by whom explanation
could be made was John Cahill motorman
of the rear train. He was shocked to death
IN his motor box. The only other person
who might have given a reason for the
tragedy was Patrick Cahill, the conductor
of the colliding train. His burned and
blackened body was found on the floor of
the motor car, midway between the front
and rear platforms.
Both trains were on their way to the
Bridge. At 5:11 o'clock yesterday after
noon four car train, known on the road
as short train, started from the station
at Thirty-sixth street and Fifth avenue,
for the Bridge. Just after 1t passed Thir-
tieth street, the fuse in the motor box blew
out and the train, with every light ex-
'inguished, came to stop. That par
ticular train runs through from Thirty
sixth street to the Bridge without passen-
gers every afternoon.
Six minutes before the short train"
left Thirty-siAth street, Bay Ridge train
pulled out of the Sxty-ifth street station
on its way to the Bridge. 1t then consisted
of three cars, in which, when the train
reached Thirty-sixth street, were about
seventyfve men and women.
At the Thirty-sixth street station three
more cars were hooked to the forward end
of the train, and John Cahll walked down
the platform to take his place in the motor
box of the first car, Patrick Cahill, the con-
ductor, rang two bells and the Bay Ridge
train started. Almost a dozen more pas
sengers were picked up at Thirty-sixth
rear cars
only because there were no passengers
in the forward cars was the loss of life not
much greater than it was.
Five blocks down the track from the
Tkirv-sixth street station the short train"
stood, stalled. 1t was seen by persons
who stood on the station platform who
were curious to know what was the matter
with it. Why John Cahill didn't see it is
n dead mans secret.
Gathering headway as it proceeded,
the Bay Ridge train flew down the tracks,
until suddenly there came crash a re-
port as OF an explosion, shooting of eectr ric
flashes up and down the rails, cracking
the shreks of those who knew not what
had happened and another rear-end col
lision had passed into the history of rail-
road wrecks.
Fifteen minutes later cars Of both trains
were on fire, and onlookers in the street
believed that the wreck was to be followed
by holocaust. Battalion Chief Dooley
Of the Brooklyn Fire Department says that
the railroad people tried first to extingllish
the flames before turning in an alarm.
The chief telegraph operator at the Thirty
sixth street station denies this. He says
that less than three minutes after the
collision occurred an alarm was turned in
from the box in the railroad station.
However that may be, it seemed to those
who were Watching from the street as the
flames spread through the wreck that the
Fire Department was long time in reach
Ing the scene, When it did get there, it
made short work of putting out the fire.
In less than half an hour the flames were
eSting,shed Meanwhile the police sent
IN hurry calls for ambulances to the
Norwegian and the Seney hospitals. The
Norwegian Hospital is in the immediate
vlCni V and its ambulances got there first