Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1905-09-14
CAR FALLS TO EET
TWELVE PERSONS KILLED ON
NEW YORK ELEVATED ROAD.

Most Serious Accident Ever Happen
ing on Manhattan's Overhead Rail
way-Bodies of Many of the Vic
tins Horribly Mangled.
New York, Sept. 1.-THE death list
OF the accident on the Ninth avenue
elevated railroad, when car crowded
with early morning workers, on their
way down town, pitched headlong in.
to the street. stands at twelve. Three
men are in hospitals with fractured
skulls. One of these 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
immediate responsibility remain to be
seen. The motorman of the wrecked
train is fugitive, while switchman,
conductor and four guards are under
| arrest.
The switchman is charged with man.
slaughter and the trainmen are held
| as witness.
| Whatever may have caused the &C.
cident, the worst in the history of the
overhead railroads in New York, it
came when southbound train on the
Ninth avenue line was switched off
| to the Sixth avenue line at the Fifty.
third street junction. The motorman,
expecting a clear track, or Disregard
ing the warning signal that the switch
was open, rushed his train along at a
high rate of speed. The first car
swung around the right angle curve,
holding to the rails because of the
weight of the train behind. Then the
strain became too great. The coup
lings broke, the second car was
whirled about almost end for end,
and to the horror of those who looked
on from below, pitched into the street.
The first indication people on the
sidewalk had of the accident was a
loud rumbling along the overhead
structure. Looking up they saw a
shower Of sparks, then followed splint-
ers and the sound of splitting timbers.
Suddenly the outer guard rail of the
railroad structure gave way, a score
OF bodies were hurled through space
and with a deafening crash the car
fell to the street. For an instant it
stood fairly on end Then the sides
gave way as if they were made of
| pasteboard, belching out mass Of
| humanity.
Those passengers who had not
| jumped from platforms and windows
| before the plunge came were thrown
| into mass in the forward end of the
car. AS the injured men and women
were struggling to free themselves.
| the heavy front 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 a building at the
southeast corner of Ninth avenue and
Fifty-third street.
Huge crowds were soon on the
/ scene and the first work of the hastily
summoned police reserves was direct
ed to clearing way for the effective
rescue of the passengers pinned down
by the wreckage. Almost every am
bulance in Manhattan was summoned
and the injured and dead were hur-
ried away with all speed.
Three alarms of fire brought many
engines to the scene. A slight fire
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-
liceman Henry Aitkens, who was
standing directly under the elevated
structure is among those most seri-
ously injured.
Corrected list of the dead: Jacob
M. Anspach, a merchant of Newark:
Ernest P. Scheible, an electrician:
Theodore Morris, colored; Solomon
Neugass, Cornelius Mccarthy, William
Lees, Joseph Bach, James Cooper,
Emma Conhoven, Albert Webster, a
clerk; Louis Abel, clerk.
Of the dead the most frightfully
mutilated was James Cooper whose
head was severed from his body.
Before the great crowds collected
by the news of the wreck could be
cleared away the police were COM
PEELED to use their night sticks on a
number Of men who were attempting
to snatch jewelry or other valuables
from the victims. The officers had no
time to make arrests, contenting them.
selves with drubbing the miscreants
as heavily as they could.
Nine New Cases at Pensacola.
Pensacola, Fla, Sept. 12.-Nine new