Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1906-11-01
SCORES KILLED
IN CAR WRECK
Atlantic City Street Cars
Plunge into Oceans
Neck.
foRTy-FoUR BODIES FOUND
Seventy-five May Have Perished-De"
fective Rail or Broken Car Blamed
Victims Entombed in Three
Coaches Under Water.

Atlantic City, N. j., Oct. 29.-By
the wrecking of three coach electric
train on the West Jersey & Seashore
railroad yesterday afternoon at least
fifty passengers persisted, and the list
may reach seventy-fve
At 1:45 a. m, nineteen bodies were
brought into the improvised morgue
and diver who has made thorough
inspection Of the submerged cars stat
ed that at least thirty bodies are stilb
in the coaches. At this hour 1t Is i'm
possible to identify any or the newly
recovered bodies. The dead recover"
ed now number forty-four.
While crossing drawbridge span
ming the waterway known as the
Thoroughfare, which separates Attain
tic City from the mainland, the train
left the track and plunged into the
water. The passengers in the first
two coaches, with one or two excep-
tons, were drowned.
The disaster, the worst that has
happened since the terrible Meadow
wreck of July 80, 1896, in which eighty
lives were lost, occurred at 800
o'clock yesterday afternoon. The
train, made up of three heavy vesti-
bule electric coaches, left Camden at
l o'clock and carried at least eighty
eight passengers, as that number OF
tickets are held by the conductor.
That official Is uncertain. however,
just how many passengers were on
the train.
The cause of the wreck has not
been established. 1t was probably
due either to a defective rail or the
breaking of some part of the super
structure of the first coach. 1t has.
also been suggested that the draw
bridge, which had just been closed
after the passage of yacht, may not
have properly locked the rails. All
theories, however, are purely specu-
lative.
While running at speed said to
have been moderate, the first coach
left the rails and dragged those fol-
lowing it over the ties for fifty feet.
Suddenly swerving, the first two
coaches plunged into the water fif.
teen feet below. The third coach
coach struck an abutment, broke it's
couplings and for brief time hung
suspended. Brief as was this PERIOD,
however, it gave more than score
of passengers an opportunity to es
cape by the rear door. Then the car
Slid off. 1t is believed that every one
in the third coach escaped alive, al
though all were injured.
Motorman Scott stuck to his post
and went down with his train. Brake
man Wood proved himself a hero.
When the train left the rails Wood
ran to the rear door, threw 1t open
and held it for passengers to escape.
He held the door open until the car
slid off the bridge and went into the
water with it. He then swan to the
shore. His action probably saved
many lives.
The accident was witnessed by
many persons on shore and assistance
was promptly sent from Atlantic Clty.
Little could be done, however, toward
saving the lives of those imprisoned
in the submerged coaches. The
water at the point where the train
plunged in was not deep enough to
cover the coaches at first but they
quickly settled in the mud, and as
the tide rose they were soon hidden
except for the trolley poles. Divers
were sent down to try to reach the
bodies in the coaches but as darkness
set in and as the tide ran more swift.
ly they were unable to do so.
Late IN the evening a wrecking
crew arrived and with their aid and
the use of derrick many bodies were
taken out and brought to the city.
OF the bodies, about twenty have been
identified, and 1t Is believed no diff
Guilty will be experienced In establish.
ing the identity of the others.