The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-12
Many Others Are Hurt by
 the Plunge. FATAL MISUNDERSTANDING Two Versions Given as to
 the Cause. People on Street Below Witnessed Most Terrible Accident in History of the MetropoIis's Overhead
 Railroads.
FATAL MISUNDERSTANDING

elevated railroad, when a car crowded with early morning workers on their way down town pitched headlong into the street, stands at twelve. Three men are in hospitals with fractured skulls. One of these, who as yet re- mains unidentified at Roosevelt Hospi- tai, is unconscious and not expected to live. More than two score of persons were injured, many of them seriously.
 The cause Of the accident and the in1- mediate responsibility remain to be as- certained. The motorman of the wrecked train is a fugitive. while a swftchman is charged with manslaugh- ter and the trainmen are held as wit nesses. Tonight Coroner Scholer, who has undertaken the work of fixing the blame for the wreck. announced that the switchman's bond had been placed at $5.ooo and those of the witnesses at Sl00 each. Whatever may have caused the mis- take, the accident. the worst in the his tory of overhead railroads in New York. came when a southbound train on the Ninth Avenue line was switched off to the Sixth Avenue line at the Fifty-third Street junction. The motornlRn, ex- pecting a clear track on the direct line of Ninth Avenue, or disregardtng the warning signal that the switches were open, rushed his train along at high rate of speed The first car swung around the night angle curve. holding to the rails because of the weight of the train behind. Then the strain be- came too great. The couplings broke, the second car was whirled about al- most end for end. and, to the horror of those who looked on from below, pitch ed into the street.
 Fell to the Street.
 The first heard of the accident was lDud rumbling along the overhead nTrt wnlm a shower of sparks. Then followed spltn- ters and the sound of splitting timbers. Suddenly the outer guard rail of the railroad structure gave way, score ot bodies were huEied through space, and, with deafening crush, the car fell to the street. For an instant 1t stood faiyiy on end. Then the sides gave way as if they were made of pasteboard, beIchlng out a mass Of humanity.
 Those passengers who had not jumped from platform and windows before the plunge came were thrown into mass at the forward end of the car. As the injured men and women were strug- gling to. free themselves the heavy frost trucks of the third car on the train fell almost in their midst as the car itself jumped partly off the elevated structure and was wedged against q building at the southwest corner Of Ninth Avenue and Fifty-third Street.
  tan was summoned and the injured and dead were hurried away with all speed. Three alarms of fire brought many engines to the scene. A. slight nre caused by burning insulation was quickly extinguished and the firemen set to work chopping out the dead and injured. The task was not an easy one, for the heavy car in falling had almost completely buried pedestrians in its wreckage. At least one was killed outright in this way, while Po- licenan Henry Aitkens, who was standing directly under the elevated structure, is among those most seri- ously injured.
 Eigft persons were dead when ta- ken out of the wreck and four died la ter at hospitals.
 The Dead and Injured.
 The corrected list of the dead:
 Jacob M. Anspach. merchant; Ernest P. scheible. electrician; Theodore Nor ris a negro; John Cochrane. Solomon Neugass, Cornelius Mccarthy, laborer; William Lees. electrician: Joseph Bach. policeman; James Cooper, Emma Con- hoven. died in Roosevelt hospital; Al bert Webster, died in Roosevelt hos pital: Louis Abel, clerk. ~=..' .4...:. Of the dead the most frightfully mu- tilated was James Cooper, whose head was completely severed from his body. The seriously injured are:
 Henry Aitkens. policeman. fracture of ribs and dislocated leg; William Butler. Martin Fitzgerald. internally injured; James Greer. Patrick J. Gill; Han, John Genzel. Bridget McMAhon, internal injuries and injuries to head John T McKenna, William T. Neibuhr skull fractured; Henrietta Qeterlin. Seymour Rowe, skull fractured; Thom- as Swan. Fred Mister, unidentified man, fractured skull. unconscious.
 The Arrests.
 The switchman In the tower at Ninth Avenue and Fifty third Street. @ornelius A. Jackson. was first arrest ed Then Conductor J. W. Johnson and Guards Higginson, J. McDavitt, w. L. Berry and B. Clark were taken into custody At a preliminary hear ing this afternoon all the men waived examination.
 Two versions of the cause of the wreck were told to the coroner. One of these was that the switchman had set the tracks for a Sixth Avenue train and when he saw his mistake had at- tempted to rectify 1t while the train wal on the curve, the change throwing the second, third and fourth cars off the track.
 The switchman, however, declares the wrecked train had Sixth Avenue signals set and he expected 1t to slow down to take the curve. Instead it maintained the speed usual with Ninth Avenue trains on the direct line. Con- ductor Johnson said this afternoon:
 '-The signals were set wrong; that was the trouble. They were set green and yellow, which Is for a Sixth Ave nue train"
 Bail was accepted for all the rail- road men under arrest late tonight.
 Omcials' Statements.
 Statements tending to fix the blame of the accident were made by oficials of the company after several hours investigation. E. P. Bryan, vice. -presi- dent of the company, speaking for the swItchman who set the switch so that the train turned of on the Sixth Ave me track at nearly a right angle to It's natural course, made the following statement in Jacksons name:
 'sThe Ninth Avenue car. which met with the accident. displayed Sixth Ave nue signals. On the assumption that the signals were correct I gave the train the Sixth Avenue track"
 General Manager Hedley of the 1n-