The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-20
ENGINE OF DEATH
WAS THAT WHICH CRASHED INTO
A CROWDED TROLLEY CAR.
SCHOOL CHILDREN VICTIMS.
MANGLED AND TORN BY A LACK
AWANNA EMPRESS.

VIII Die-TroIIey Car Sped Down
Knocked Down Grade Crossing
Gates and Was Demolished by the
EnRinc-DreadGuI Scene of Car
mage Was the Result.
Newark, N. j.. Feb. IA fast ex-
press on the Lackawanna Railroad cut
through a trolley car crowded with
school children at the Clifton avenue
crossing to-day. Eight of the children
were killed and score or more of them
injured.
The motorman OF the car, who stuck
to his post, will die. and the engineer
of the express was so badly hurt that
there is little hope of his recovery.
Both the express and the trolley car
were on steep grades, going at right
angles. The express was signalled and
the crossing gates We're lowered, while
the trolley car was yet half way down
the hill. The motorman shut off the
power and applied the brakes, but al
most Immediately the car began to slip
along the icy rails.
1t gained tremendous momentum at
the bottom of the hill, crashed through
the gates. directly i'm the track of the
on-coming train. The locomotive plung-
ed its way through the trolley, throw
ing the children in every direction.
The dead are:
Victims of the Accident.
Viola Ill, II years; Maude Baker. Is;
Ernestine p. Mueller, Is years; Mabel
r. Karschner, II years, Tiffin, o.; AL
ma Lochnberg. 16 years; Rosebud
Kohn; Ella Werpupp. 10 years; Evan
L. Eastwood, Jr., 16 years.
| Injured:
| Peter Brady, motorman of trolley
car, skull crushed, will die; Oscar
Backliff engineer of train. head
crushed, probably fatally injured; Jen-
ME McClelland. Is years old, skull
fractured, has other injuries. probably
ftally hurt; Florence Doll. ankle
broken and badly hurt about head and
shoulders; Mabel Smith, II year old,
head injured; Frederick Allsop, injur-
ed about head and body; George Smith,
colored leg fractured; Carl Racquet,
cut about face and bruised about body:
| Maude Van Allen, II years, bruised
about head and arms; Walter Baur-
| mann, II years, rib broken; Susan de
Camp, arm fractured; Edith Fox, Pau
line Rich. Mary Lytte, Marguerite
! Commerford Francis Nevins, Helen
McCord. Aline Corsen, Nina Bull, Lii
liam Gerarty, Marion Price, Frederick
Lindsey, Emily Knight, Arthur Lu-
| land and Jacob Wallack
The accident happened within three
| blocks of the high school building,
and in the car at the time were nearly
100 pupils. AS many as thirty others
had managed to throw themselves from
the car before the crash came.
The trolley was one of the specials
| which every day bring the children to
| school. 1t had more than it's ordinary
load to-day, owing to the cold. 1t
contained every child that could
squeeze inside, and many others stood
on the rear platform.
TumbIed on Into the Snow.
Because this car had been so crowd
ed, many who were waiting for it be-
fore the hill was reached could not get
on, although some climbed on the front
platform with the motorman. A score
or more children were compelled to
walk, and they followed the car afoot
less than half way down the hill the
railroad gates began to drop.
Peter Brady the motorman, prompt
ly shut off the power and applied the
brakes. The speed of the car was
checked, but it continued to move slow
ly down the incline. There was no
thought of danger. Then it began to
move faster and faster. The ice COW
cred rails afforded no hold for the
wheels, and although Brady jammei
his brake harder and then swung on
the reverse, the momentum of the car
grew at every yard, and the car shot
down toward the railroad
When it was right at the gates the
express Numbered into view. Warned
by the cries of those afoot and by their
own sense of danger, those on the
platforms began to throw themselves
off into the snow and as the car sped
along the few remaining feet toward
the rails perhaps one-third escaped
death or injury in this way but there
was no time within the car to do more
than crush toward the rear door The
gates were swept aside like tooth
picks, and before the cracking of the
gates died out came the crash. For
thirty seconds before the crash the air
was filed with frantic cries of those
who saw death dashing down upon
them.
Scene Was Terrible.
The wreck OF the trolley car was
complete. The pilot Of the engine
struck ii almost in the middle and
turned it partly around, and then the
ponderous engine cut it I'm two. The
upper part of the trolley was reduced
to fragments under the drivers of the
locomotive. One half of the car was
thrown to one side and lay on the
tracks. The other section was hurled
some distance away. In every direction
lay the dead and injured.
The engine was brought to a stand
still and from the train and from near
by houses men rushed 10 the rescue.
The spectacle was appalling, and many
who started to work had to give up UNI
nerved.
over from the high school, where the
crash had been heard and from the
windows of which some had witnessed
the accident, came pupils and teachers
to aid in succoring their companions. A
lad who had been hurled to safety In "a
snow bank thirty feet from the cross
ing. arose, brushed the snow out of his
eyes, and with a shrek rushed up the
street to firebox and turned in an
alarm.
Within five minutes as many dead
bodies had been laid side by side in the
snow alongside the track. One OF the
bodies that of girl, was found a block
beyond. II had been carried there on
the pfiot Of the engine Load after