The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1905-09-15
Train on New York Elevated Road
Goes Over Trestle.
TWELVE PERSONS MEET DEATH
Worst Accident In History of city's
Overhead Roads. - Swltchman Held
on Charge of Granddaughter Pending
Settlement of the Blame.

New York, Sept. 1.-THE death list
of Mondays accident on the Ninth av-
enue elevated railroad, when a car
crowded with early morning workers
on their way down town pitched head
long into the street, stands at twelve.
Three men are in hospitals with frac-
tured skulls, One OF these, who AS
yet remains unidentified at Roosevelt
hospital, is unconscious and not eX-
pected 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
settled. The motorman of the wrecked
train is a fugitive. while a switchman,
conductor and four guards are under
arrest. The switchman is charged
with manslaughter and the trainmen
are held as witnesses. Last night Cor
oner Scholer, who has undertaken the
work of fixing the blame for the
wreck, announced that the switch
mans bond had been placed at $4,000
and those of the witnesses at 500
each.
Bodies Hurled Through Space.
Whatever may have caused the mis-
take, the accident, the worst in the
history of the overhead railroads in
New York, came when a southbound
train on the Ninth avenue line was
switched off to the Sixth ave.
nue. line at the Fifty-third street juno
ton. The motorman, expecting Il
clear track on the dircct line of Ninth
avenue, or disrega ling the warning
signal that the switch was open,
rushed his train along at 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 toe
great. The couplings broke, the sec.
ond car was whirled about almost end
for end, and 20 the horror of those who
looked on from below, pitched into the
street. A score of bodies were hurled
Through space, and with a deafening
crash the car fell. For an instant it
stood fairly on end. Then the sides
gave way az if they were made of
pasteboard, belching out mass of hui
manity.
Trucks Fell on Them.
Those passengers who had not
jumped from platforms and windows
before the plunge came were throwa
into a mass at 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 elo-
waited 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 sum-
moned police reserves was directed to
clearing a way for the effective res
cue of the passengers pinned down by
the wreckage. Almost every ambu-
lance in Manhattan was summoned
and the injured and dead were hur-
Tied away with all speed.
Rescue Work Not Easy.
The work of rescue was not an easy
one, for the heavy car in falling had
almost completely buried pedestrians
in it's 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 the most seriously
injured.
Eight persons were dead when
taken out of the wreck and four died
later at hospitals.
To Meet In Canton.