The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-05-16
RACBGOERS IN TRAIN WRECK.
LOSS OF LIFE PREVENTED BY
GOODNESS or THE ENGINEER.

Special to Belmont Park. with 5000
Aboard, Runs Into Half Open Switch
at Woodhaven Junction-F1reman MAY
Die OF WOunds-Many are BRUISED
More than eight hundred racegoers.
bound for Belmont Park on the first special
train to leave on the Atlantic avenue line
Yesterday, whatever their fortune at the
truck. can conaider themselves lucky to
be alive this morning At Woodhaven
Junction, twenty minutes out from the
F1atbush avenue station, they were IN
volved in a wreck which was saved from
causing great loss of life only by the good
JUDGMENT and GOODNESS OF George Valen-
tine, the engineer.
Ordinarily the train passes Woodhaven
Junction at rate of thirty to forty miles
an hour, and Yesterday clear signal was
set for the engineer despite the fact that
the switch had not been adjusted for him.
But Valentine happened to recall that
at that place the company is preparing
TO equip the line with electricity, laying
a third rail aad replacing some Of tho old
rails of the tracks He considered it adj
visable to slow up while approaching the
station and at the same time kept sharp
LOOKOUT OH wv lluth t'i'uN' ''D'e'' -
did not discover the condition of the switch
until close upon it, nevertheless he had time
70 apply the bra kes and close the throttle.
What followed was thrilling enough for
all the passengers and painful enough
for some but was only a small portion
of the havoc and loss that might have been
caused but for the engineer action Inc
engine left the track at the switch, leap
4 IL, ,,.t,, al
the south side of the Atlantic avenue tracks
hundred feet The tender followed,
separating from the engine and veering
20 the other side Of the track, and behiho
pushed ten ancient and frail passenger
coaches which the company has pressed
into service for Use to tho tracks.
After he had done his full duty Engineer
Valentine jumped, at the same time call
ing upon the fireman, James Demelt, TO
do likewise. Valentine landed on soft earth
and got of without a scratch. Demet was
not 80 fortunate. He was on the tool box
alongside the boiler, and as the engine
came to earth after leaving the track he
was thrown about twenty-five feet, landing
on a track and sustaining injuries from
which he may die
The first four of the passenger Goa cheS
left the track. careened to one side, but
righted themselves. Though the cars were
Of light construction, the Roadway was not
sufficient to telescope them, and only the
platforms of the first three were jammed
together. Conductor James Barto OF ia
maica and Robert Batterman of 24o Hart
street Brooklyn, were on the rear platform
of the first car, but were thrown off by the
first shock. The conductor was merely
bruised, Batterman got of with cut on the
leg, which did not prevent him from going
home.
The passengers in the forward cars were
piled up in the front ends in ngled mass
and very few of them escaped without
slight bruises. Glass ip nearly all the
windows was broken passengers were
hurled from their seats and there was .
panicky rush to escape. In the. first car
panic was quieted by oudvoiced man
shouting:
Most of us seem to be alive and kicking
now, and it's all over. Go easy everybody"
In the second car some of the women,
frantically eavoring to get out by the
windows, We're restrained by other pas
sengers and all then made ti!eir way out
in reasonably good order. In the four rear
cars the passengers were not jostled SO
severely nor was there so great confusion,
though the sudden stopping. of the train
threw John II, P,ohlmann of wellington,
broken gainst the back Of a seat.
Capt. kuthenberg of the Richmond Hill
police station had his reserves on the scene
In a short time and ambulances arrived
from St Mary's and Jamaica hospitals,
Several physicians not attached to these
hospitals also assisted in caring for the
injured. Because the physicians were
not working under one gene raj authority
it was impossible to secure complete
list OF the in jured. On the part OF many
Of the injured. too, there was an aversion
to giving names. They had cuts and
sprains cared for near the wreck and then
proceeded either to the track or home
closure of their names in a crowd going
to the races might cause them business
embarrassment.
Borough Inspector Adam A. Cross ha-
stened to the scene, and at various times
through the afternoon ordered out the
reserves Of the seventy-fifth seventy
Exth and seventy-seventh precincts and
the eevent seventh sub-station. Late in
the afternoon some of these were relieved
by reserves from Brooklyn.
Inspector Cross was inclined to place
the blame for the accident on Henry Ralph,
the sigma Imam, and ordered his arrest on
charge Of criminal negligence. Ralph was
IN charge Of the switch which separates
the tracks Of the Atlantic avenue division
from those of the Rockaway division, the
tracks divergipg short distance west of
the station.
The interlocking system, conducted from
the tower had been dispensed with pend
ing completion of the repairs. Ralph set
the switch for a train on the Rockaway
division and after this had passed, neg
leoted it is said to put it in position for the
race train. Instead he went to the tower,
began talking with the tower1nan, Peter
T. Mackin, and the towerman gave the
oncoming train clear signal. Neither
discovered the omission until the train
was close upon the switch.
Mackin then ran from the tower, but
-os unable to reach the switch in time
H. 'ad narrow escape from death, for
he would have been struck had the en-
CINE veered to the north instead OF south
ward. Ralph, he says, was paralyzed
at the apparently impending calamity
and could not move.
Ralph was taken to the Richmond Hill
police station. Late in the afternoon he
was released on bail. Though he declared
that he had not touched the switch. Of
f1cials OF the road consider him mistaken.
II the switch had been open, they say,
the train would have passed safely along
the Rockaway division. 1t is considered
certain, therefore, that the switch was
moved to such an extent that the rails
were connected with neither track.
large number Of the passengers were
bookmakers, their assistants or enthu-
siasts anxious to reach the track early, and