The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-12
HORROR AT A SWITCH
The Coach is Forced From the EIeva-
ted Structure and Pitches Into the
Street Below, Dropping Upon One
End and Splitting Wide Open. Two
Score People Mere Injured in the
Appalling Disaster, the Worst That
Has Ever Occurred Upon the Road.
(By the Associated Press. }

New York, Sept. 1.-THE death list
of today's accident on the Ninth
Avenue Elevated Railroad when a car
crowded with early morning workers
on their way down town, pitched
long into the street. stands at
twelve. Three men are in hospitals
with fractured skulls. One of these,
who as yet remains unidentified at
Roosevelt Hospital, 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
settled The lnotorman of the wreck
ed train is a fugitive, while a switch
man, conductor and four guards are
under arrest The switchman is
charged with manslaughter and the
traininen are held as witnesses. To-
night Coroner Scholer, who has un
dertaken the work of fixing the blame
for the wreck, announced that the
switchman's bond had been placed at
$1,000 and those of the witnesses at
500 each.
Pitches Into Street.
Whatever may have caused the
the history of the overhead railroads
in New York, came when south
bound 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
on the direct line of Ninth Avenue, or
disregarding 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
couplers broke, the second car was
whirled about almost end foremost,
and to the horror of those who looked
on from below, pitched into the
street. fs3
The first indication the people on the
sidewalk had of the accident was d
Ioud rumbling along the overhead
structure. Looking up they saw a
shower of sparks, then followed splin-
ters and the sound of splitting timbers.
Suddenly the outer guard rail of the
railroad structure gave way, score
of bodies were hurled through space,
and with a deafening crash the car
fell to the street For an instant it
xtood fairly on the 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 the platform and win
dows before the plunge came, were
thrown 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 or
the third car on the train fell almost
in their midst as the car itself jumped
partly off the elevated structure ana
was wedged against a. building at the
southeast corner of Ninth Avenue ana
Fifth street
Help Comes Quickly.
Huge crowds we're coon 4on the
scene and the first work of the hasti-
ly summoned police reserves was dl-
rected to clearing the way for the
effective rescue of the passengers pm
ned down by the wrecKage. Almost
every ambulance. in Manhattan 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 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 falling had most COM
pletely buried pedestrians in its wreck
i'm this way, while policeman Harry
Atkins. who was standing directly un-
der the elevated structure. is among
those most seriously injured.
List of the Dead
Eight persons were dead when TAX
en- out of the wreck and four died later
at hospitals.
Corrected list of the dead.
Jacob NJ. Anspach. a merchant and
member of the Newark. n. j., board
of trade.
Ernest p. ScIleible, an electrician.
Theodore Morris. colored
John Cocilraie.
Solomon Neugass. employed by the
Mutual Chemical Company
Cornelius Mccarthy. Iahorer
William NJ. Lees. an electrician.
Joseph Bach. policeman
James Cooper. employed by Fire
Proof Tenement House Association
Emma Conhovefts died in Roosevelt