The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-11
Ten Persons Killed and 40
Injured in a Wreck.
An Open Switch and an Excited
Switchman.
STRUCK A BUILDING.
One Car Lodged on Fire Escape
of a House.
Passengers Made Their Escape
Through the Windows.
Dead

| OU6A 1AAO W AAUOWSe
| Dead.
| JOSEPH NJ. AUSACH, merchant,
| Newark, N. J.
ERNEST P. SCHEIFLE, electrician.
THEODORE MORRIS, coIored.
JOHN CORCORAN.
| SOLOMON NEUGUS.
! CORNELIUS MCCARTHY
| WILLIAM LEES, electrician.
| JOSEPH BACH, policeman.
/ JAMES COOPER.
Unidentified woman.
EMMA kONHAVEN, died in hos
pital.
New York, Sept. 11.-Ten persons
were killed and more than forty in
Jured by the derailment of an elevated
train at Fifty-third street and Ninth
avenue today. The train was a south
bound Ninth avenue and should have
continued on the straight track instead
4 OF being switched to the curve by
| which Sixth avenue trains proceed on
| Fifty-third street from Ninth avenue
| to Sixth avenue. A Sixth avenue train
had just passed and the switch lever
was open.
Owing to this open switch the first
car of the Ninth avenue train took the
switch, just barely staying on the rails.
and turned into Fifty-third street in
stead of going down Ninth avenue.
The switchman, it is alleged. when he
saw his blunder, turned the switch
back again, as if to send the train on
the straight track down Ninth avenue.
As soon as this was done, the train was
wrecked. The second car got around
but the third, owing to the switch be-
ing changed, was thrown off the track
1t fell into the street, turning COM
pletely over, and landing upside down.
The fourth car and fifth car also
hIlt not fnI fn
street. The fourth car struck with
terrific force against the building at
the corner of Ninth avenue and rested
against the fire escape. This building
is occupied in part by a Mrs. Grove,
whose family was at breakfast. The
! passengers in the fourth and fifth cars
We're able to save themselves and to
get to the street in safety by climbing
through the windows of Mrs. Groves
apartments, from the fire escape
against which the fourth car rested.
| Policeman Edward Moran, who was
| injured, was standing beneath the
| structure when the accident happened.
He leaped when he heard the crash
overhead and escaped death.
Saw 1t Coming. -
81 turned around and saw the car
| coming to the street. he said. "It fell
| with a crash on its forward end. The
bottom cracked and the sides shivered
and opened out. The people were jam
med forward, holding to the straps and
, When the side broke out they were
scattered all over the street. These were
the lucky ones. Those who could not
get out were the worst injured I saw
there was awful work ahead, so 1 ran
to Fifty-first street and turned in an
: alarm. Then sent in a call for all
the ambulances and asked for police re-
| serves.
LAS ran back called for help from
| wagons of all sorts. When I got back
the street was strewn with injured peo-
pie. We lifted them into grocery wa
, gons, trucks, anything handy and hur-
: Iied them to Roosevelt hospital. Many
of them were women. They had tainted
and it looked as if nearly all were dead.
dragging people out of the car. The
further down they got into the mass
of humanity the slower the work be-
came, and the more serious were the
wounds of those rescued. Finally axes
had to be used to get the people from
under the wreck.
"At that stage they began to pull out
the dead
derailed cars on the structure as they
realized what had happened, became in
tense. In the forward car the men,
| deeming the motorman was responsible
for the wreck, attacked him and tried
to beat him. He was dragged from his
seat but shouted for fair play and con-
WINGED the crowd that it was the switch
man and not he that was responsible.
OuC N1SAH y Ou1nQcU
Coroner Scholer held an inn
! promptu inquiry into the cause Of the
wreck as soon as he could get the
train crew into drug store near by
One of the incidents of the disaster
was the jump of James Bowen from a
window of the third car. as it fell from
the elevated track into the street. He
landed in the street clear of the car
but head foremost and suffered a
fractured skull.
Eight bodies of those dead were
taken to the police station and laid
. out in a row on the floor OF the back
: room and as fast as persons who
j made positive identihcations reached
: the station house, they were admitted.
, AS the news spread the crowd in front
! of the station house increased until
there was danger of a fatal collision
and extra police were ordered out
from adjacent precincts to aid in
clearing the street.
The head which was found belonged
to the body of Solomon Nugast. He
had been sitting at the front end Of
2 the car which jumped into the
r street when a sharp piece of board or
} as though done with an AK The head
had been found on the track several
yards away.
81 am satisfied the whole accident
was due to the neglect of the. SWITCH
, man. said Coroner SchoIeP. ''In the
: ing the Ninth avenue train into Fifty
! third street and then-added TO his
blunder by turning the switch back
: again in an attempt to divert the train
into Ninth avenue again. The last
mistake caused the terrible accident
Joseph Bach, policeman, died after
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