The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-26
TEN LIVES WERE LOST IN DISASTER CaVe-in of Subway Tunnel Due
 to Negligence B|G CRACKS WERE SEEN 
Work of Rescue Delayed by Position of Huge BouIders and Spring of Water--Superinten and
 Foreman Arrested.

lost by the cave-in of the roofs and walls 1 of the subway tunnel at One Hundred
 and Ninety-ffth street last night, and
 four persons were badly injured All the
 dead and injured were workmen, and most
 of them Italians. The dead:
 Timothy Sullivan. foreman.
 William schutte. electrician. l Guissepe Barone.
 Stanzone Brune.
 Louis Tippio.
 Five unidentified Italian laborers
 The accident was the most disastrous
 that has occurred in the construction of
 the subway. At the point where the cave
 in occurred a gang of twenty men were
 at work in the tunnel which is about 10 feet below the surface.
 Rufus c. Hunt. general superinten- | dent of the tunnel work, said today that two converging seams had appeared in the roof of the tunnel during the days work on Saturday. The presence of these seams. however, was not believed to indicate any
 more dangerous character of the rock than had previously been encountered, al- though 1t was thought necessary to prop the roof with a number of upright timber braces.
 Three Blasts Set of. Three blasts were set off in rapid sue cession by electricity loosening large | quantities of earth and rock. The drillers | say that about ten minutes elapsed to all l low the smoke to clear away before Tim
 othy Sullivan, the foreman, and Elec-
 trician Schutte advanced, the latter fn-
 tending 10 string wires and hang electric
 lamps to light the way. They were fol- lowed by sixteen worlSmen. The vanguard
 of the gang had reached the broken stone l when a rumbling sound was heard. Those
 in the rear had just time to turn about and run when with a deafening crash 1 hundreds of tons of rock fell on the men
 in the face of the boring Those out of reach of the deluge of rock were knocked flat on their faces by the rush of wind When the first victim was found, an Italian laborer, he was on q shelf of the excavation, hanging on one leg a boulder of about ten tons in weight having crushed him. The rock which held him was restrained from falling further by small piece of stone insecurely wedged under it. An examination showed that an effort to move the boulder would cause the unfortunate man to be completely an initiated.
 The doctors then decided to amputate
 this pinioned leg and this was done in the the light of the ambulance lamp The man. who was not identihcc aieS later at hospital.
 SprinJ of Water Released. | The work of further rescue was delayed
 for some little time owing to the threaten l ing position of the boulder. The cave-in
 released a natural spring in the earth
 above the tunnel, and in a few moments
 a stream of water was gushing in and to | some extent interfering with the work
 of rescue. The firemen and police cleared away the small pieces of rock from the | big block of stone, and managed to rescue | June Pasqueale and Patasto Valantio l who were badly bruised and charred In | the back and legs. The big stone was | then blown apart by powder and taken i away by plecemeal. Back of this rock | was a fifty-ton block In a crevice be- | heath 1t the bodies of two men, one lying across the other, were found The upper had been crushed to death
 while the one underneath was alive. The big stone was partly blasted away while
 1t lay over him and a hydraulic jack then
 elevated the remaining part of it, suffci- ently high to permit the mans removal He was Juno Baskio. The most pathetic incident in connection with the accident was the finding of the body of Foreman Timothy Sullivan It was not recognized until long after daylight Son Waits for Body. From about o'clock in the morning his 1O-year-old son. Samuel.- had stood close to the rescuers and could not be induced to leave until the body of his father had been extrcated. Many Italian women con- gregated about the exit lamenting and rushed to the tram car each time if brought forth a body.
 Rufus C. Hunt, superintendent. and Richard Briers. general foreman for John
 E. McDonald' the contractor who is buiId- ing the tunnel. were arrested as soon as they reached the scene of the disaster, but they, being experts in tunnel work. were permitted to direct the work of rescue Later magistrate remanded them to tho
 coroner, who held them in s1O.oO0 hail each.
 Coroner Jackson said he believed tho accident was caused by criminal neyli gence. The seams which appeared Satur
 day are believed to have been about the
 great rock, which fell directly in the cen
 ter of the excavation. As soon as tbs boulder, acting as a keystone was releas- ed. the stones on both sides which had been crushed loose. fnIlowad if ,lo,-,.