The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-17
Electric Train Jumps the
 Track.
CARRYING MATINEE
 CROWDS BACK HOME
Seventeen Bodies Were Recovered
 by Police Reserves.
wreck Caught on Fire Bat Prompt Response of Police and Fire Department Prevented |
 Greater Loss ofLife.

F ',i
 New York, Feb. 1s.--sixteen passen- gers were killed outright, four others had died of their injuries at midnight and at last fifty more were more or less seriously injured following the wreck of the white Plains and Brew ster express on the Harlem division of the New York Central and Hud- son river railroad near Woodiawn road in the Bronx borough of Great CT New York tonight
 The train wass filled with matinee crowds and commuters and was made up of two electric motors. combtna- tion baggage and smoking car and four passenger coaches. 1t left the Grand Central station at s:ls o'clock with the first scheduled stop at White Plains It was running at high speed when it reached woodlawn Road where there is sharp curve. The motors and the second car took the curve safely, but the following coaches were derailed and tumbling on theif sides, were dragged one hundred yards before the couplings gave way, and the four cars piled together in ruins; at the foot of a low embankment.
 A sheet of electric flame enveioped the rear car and for a moment threat. sned to roast the victims pinioned In the debris. The flames did not, how ever, spread and the horror of holocaust was averted. As the cars fell they smashed the third rail break ing the current and ending the dang- CT from this source. In the crosh which followed there was death TOT many, while practically every one in the four coaches received injuries of some sort,
 Many were ground to piecas and for hours identifications was almost hope less. As the ears went oyers many af the passeagsrF were thrown laso es z through the windows and 50 cut ana maimed The identified dead are;
 shortly after midnight Coroner Sehwanneeker made etatement in which he, said
 IT have taken possession Of one of tlia rails over which the train pAsSea and shall hold them for technical termination. Tn my preliminary in yestigation found a defect in this rail which indicated, nrny opinion. the place where a big wheel prooa- hty one of the drive wheels of the engine, hit q rail at a point almost directly under the Woodlawn road bridge. This rail has an indentation clearly defined which shows where some heavy object dropped on 1t. The theory is that following the dropping of this heavy object upon the rail it spread. allowing the wheels that passed over the rail later to drop to tha ties"
 One of the witnesses secured by the coroner says that while passing at a point almost under tho bridge he felt the train rise up off the tracks and 1t seemed to fly through the air.
 shall continue my investigation as soon as daylight will permit" said the coroner.
 The coroner ordered the arrest of Engineer Waren Williams and his as- sfstant, Stansfield. The engineer was held without bail and his assistant paroled.
 Many of the injured were brought to the city on special trains while others were removed to nearby hos pitals and some sent to their homes at White Plains and Mount Vernon.
 Speculation as to the speed of the train when 1t struck the curve was general among survivors of the wreck tonight, but there was little opinion on which to base reliable estimates.
 Train No. 25 left the Grand Central Station at 6:13 o'clock. drawn by two heavy electric motors and loaded with matinee crowd and commuters on their way home from business. It was made up of the combination baggage and smoking car and five passenger coaches. At woodlawn Road. the four tracks run through rocky cut and ' took a sharp curve When the train reached the curve it was, according to the passengers, running at a very high speed. estimated by some at sixty miles an hour.
 Both motors and the smoking car swung safely around the curve but the cars following left the rails and plunged over on their sides with a terrific crash and tore up the tracks and after sltling a hundred yards col lapsed in one mass. Of those instantly killed, by far the greater number were women. Many were mangled beyond recognition. Ambulances and surgeons from every hospital In the Bronx bor- ough and from Bellevue in Manhattan responded to hurry calls, as did two fire engine companies and the police reserves from many stations.
 Many of the injured were quickly eX- tricated from the wreckage, while oth- CTS were so pinioned that they could not be taken out for some time. Those most seriously injured were hurried to hospitals, while coroa9rs took charge of the dead as fast as the bodies were recovered
 Fire started in the overturned cars but the flames were quickly eXtinguish- ed and the hreincn lent their aid to the injured. Special trains carried many of the injured to White Plains and Mount Vernon, while others were brought to the Grand Central Station and sent to hospitals in the city
 Supt. Brownson of the Harlem di- vision stated at Il o'clock tonight that the cars had been cleared and that no more bodies had been found. The Zee estimate the dead seventeen The cause of the wreck was not off, ficially determined tonight. At the Grand Central station there was in- cIinatjon to blame the accident to snrsa6ins rails but later 1t was said that 1t was believed that the axle of the first passenger coach broke. throwing the cars from the track
 The rear car containing more wo' Sr1atsst as it overturned and before the breakinE of the coupling released n from the cara ahead, if vas Iter-