The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-11
KILLED IN PARK Az. TUNNEL.
rHREE ELECTRICIANS RUN DOWN
BY LIGHT ENGINE.

first II Hit Man VINO was to Give warning.
without ughts - DeraileJ Express
Locomotive" Adds q Delay Of frame.
Three men were run down and cut to
oIeces Yesterday afternoon in tho Park
avenue tunnel Of the New York Central
Railroad, which is being equipped for cleo
tricai traffic, The accident occurred nea
Fifty-seventh street, which is a block north
of where the tracks leave the open cut and
enter the tube.
Two Of the men killed were working under
the direction Of W. A. Lowe, the supervisor
Of third rail installation. = They were en-
gagged in connecting the rails at the joints
with copper wire in order to minimize the
loss of electricity when the current was
turned on. The third man, who was about
one hundred feet to the south, q stationed
there TO warn them Of the approach of a
train. He carried a megaphon through
which he wassupposed oshou the warning.
The tunnel vas dark and full Of smoke
where the men were working. Apparently
the lookout, did not see the light engine
bound north that flashed along from the
Grand Central Station. The engine struck
him and cut on his head and one arm. He
was dragged along for about a hundred
feet and the body was hurled to the side.
Next the engine struck one Of the wire
workers and crushed in his skull. Before
the third man. who was working, close by,
could. get out'of the way the engine struck
him also. and he too was instantly killed.
The track was strewn for a block or more
with the fragments OF the bodies.
Word was sent to the Grand Central
Station of the accident and when. some OF
the employees Of the road arrived on the
scene the engineer, William McSorley; the
fireman; e. J.. Brusl, and the conductor,
W. J. Kerr, jumped aboard the locomotive.
which was numbered 2Oe4, and speeded
away. All OF them seemed to he greatly
excited and in a hurry to get away from
the scene OF the accident. Other en-
ployees gathered UP the remains as best
they could and placed them along the wal
OF the tunnel. The bodies were there an
hour or more before Coroner Shrady ar
rived. They were then removed TO the
Fast Fifty first street station house and
from there TO the Morgue.
The police had the greatest difficulty
in, getting the details OF the accident. No
one about the scene could be found who
knew the men or how they met death. All
he information that could be got at he
Grand Central Station was that the men
had been killed by an engine running light
and that their names were Blackburn,
Cassin and Erich. The first name of Erich
was James or Joseph, but the first names
of the others were not known, they said.
When asked where the locomotive that did
the killing was, the information was re-
turned that 1t was somewhere between
Spuyten Duyvil and the ~roundhouse at the
foot Of Seventy-second street on the West
Side. At that time the locomotive had not
reached the ~roundhouse and no one seemed
10 know when IL would.
IL seems that the engine that did the kill
ing had gone early in the afternoon from
the roundhouse to Spuyten Duyvil and
thence south with a carload Of horses to
the yard of the Grand Central Station. IL
was on it's way back when the three men
were killed. McSorley. the engineer, was
arrested last evening at the roundhouse
n locked up in the East Fifty-first street
station house OF the charge Of homicide.
He said he could not tell how the accident
happened. II was very dark and smoky
in the tunnel. he said and, as the men we're
working without a light of any kind he
did not see them.
Atimekeeper on the Central told the police
last evening that the men killed we're Charles
Pierson of $50 West 139th street, John u
rich of West l22d street and John Libirty
OF Fifth avenue, Brooklyn.
The accident delayed northbound traffic
in the tunnel for some time. Scarcely had
the trains got to running again when the
engine OF the North Adams express, which
left the Grand Central at 3:35, jumped the
tracks at Fifty-Hfth street and blocked
tracks three, -four and five. The rear trucks
If the locomotive and the front trucks OF
the composite car Immediately following
left the tracks and traffic was held up for
more thar an hour. Traffic on Saturday
afternoon is heavier than usual, and. soon
there was a mighty jam Of would he trav-
eIle rs around the train gates in the station.
Nothing could be lone in the way of sending
out trains until the obstruction had been
removed After an hour or so the engine
and composite car were hoisted back on
the track and taken to the station. Traffic
mas than raa,xunad