The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1904-08-23

Chicago, Aug. 1S.-Four people were
killed, another fatally hurt and % Sc
verely injured In a collision late We'd
nesday afternoon between an express
train on the Chicago Great Western
railroad and a train OF three trolley
cars bound for the Hawthorne race
track The dead are:
Mrs. Frances Kaufman.
William Irving. died in hospital af-
ter amputation of leg.
Mrs. jeremiah Shuckrow, Danville,
Ill.
Unidentified woman about 30 years
Of age.
Fatally injured: Michael Ryan. mo-
torman of trolley car. skull fractured.
The accident occurred at the cross
ing of Forty-eighth avenue and the
Chicago Great Western tracks The
train was coming into the city and, ac-
cording to some witnesses of the acci-
dent, was running at a high rate OF
speed. Others and the train crew de-
clare that 1t was not going over 20
miles an hour. The trolley train, which
was made up of a motor car and two
trailers. in charge OF Conductor w. II.
Condor and Motorman Michael Ryan,
approached the crossing at a rapid
rate, Just as the train came around a
sharp curve west OF the crossing.
Ryan put on the brakes with all his
strength, in the effort to stop his car.
| but the brakes refused to work., and
with undiminished speed the motor
car ran up on the tracks at the same
time that the locomotive came up
The car struck the train just be-
tween the engine and the tender. The
motor car was torn to splinters and the
car Immediately behind il was knock
ed over, smashed nearly to pieces and
dragged along the track for 100 feet.
The third car was not dragged from
the tracks. and but for the fact that
the couplings between ii and the sec
ond trailer broke. the list OF injured
would probably be much larger, as all
of the cars were filed with passengers,
The motorman remained at his post
to the last and was fatally hurt, his
skull being fractured To people who
came to aid him while he lay on the
ground. he said:
THE brakes would not work. That
was what caused it. When ! saw that
they would not work. I reversed the
current Now get aside and be quiet
and will be all right"
The scene of the accident Is out In
the suburbs of the city, and 1t was
some time before the ambulances and
the patrol wagons with physicians
could reach the place to aid the in.
ljured, but the uninjured passengers
land one physician who was a passen-
ger on the rear car of the trolley
ltrain, together with the members ol
the train crew, did all in their power
to aid the suffering The train crew
loffered to carry all the injured to th'
lefty, but by the time all OF them were
out of the wreck the ambulances were
on the spot and carried away th'
wounded.
All of the persons who were killed
occupied seats in the front or the
first car on the west side. One woman
who is as yet unidentified at th'
morgue had Just taken seat Offered
her by William Tennis when the crasl
came. She was rolled under the mo
tor car and horribly mangled. Tennis
after giving up his seat went to th'
rear of the car and escaped with sligh
injuries.
All the members of the Chicag'
lGreat Western train crew and tn
conductors of the trolley cars wer
arrested pending the inquiry OF tn
coroner.