Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-06
TWO ELECTRIC CARS MEET
Fatal Crash Last Evening Near An
napolis, Md.
NEARLY A SCORE INJURED
Merry Party Headed for Graduation
Hop at Naval Academy Over
taken by Disaster-What
the Officials Say.

Eight dcad-six OF them men.
one 4 woman and the last sun
nv-haired little girl of three years
and more than score seriously
injured. is the tragic record of a
wreck on the single-track Wash
iugton. Baltimore and Annapolis
railway. about three miles from
Annapolis. Md, at 8 o'clock last
evening. Two heavy steel-built
electric coaches. both running as
extras, one carrying forty or more
passengers from Baltimore to An
napolis and the other an empty.
met in head-on collision between
Best's Gate and Camp Parole on
the bulge OF a sharp curve around
a heavily wooded strip. r. E.
O'Neil, motorman OF the passen-
ger-crowded extra stuck to his
post. and. staring into the face OF
death. ground down his heavy
brake to the very moment of inn
pact. He was instantly killed.
George w adsworth. motorman OF
the empty extra. jumped. and his
flying car crashed with undimin-
ished speed into the two-scorc
laughing. chatting passengers.
clawing its way. with death under
its wheels. practically through the
body of the crowded car. E. L.
Bernasco. conductor OF the empty.
and !. +. Walraven. conductor OF
the filled coach. were standing on
the rear platforms OF their respec-
tive cars when the crash occurred.
and escaped serious injury.
There were a number of witnesses OF last
nights single track tragedy near Annapolis
were unfortunate enough to view the terri
flying crash of the flying coaches. that Mo-
tcrman O'Nei stuck to his post till the last
and did all that brave man could do to
Grated by the mute testimony of the set
brakes of the smashed and shattered blood
stained fragments of his car.
1t has not been determined who is re-
sponsible for the accident. Vice President
Shanahan of the railway company says
''disobedience Of oIGers He claims that
the empty extra should have taken the
siding at Camp Parole. But Motorman
Wadsworth of that car denies that lie re-
ceved anv such orders and says, on the
contrary that he was directed to take
the siding at Best's Gate
Meet With Horrible Crash.
The cars met with a horrible crash ano
a grinding roar of rending wood and twist
ing iron. Then. for the brief space of a
second. after the ears, each tearing under
under heavy momentum into the other,
had spent their force and toppled. mere
kndling wood and metal scraps. at the
side of the track. there was silence, and
then from the chaotic mass Of flesh and
blood and wood and iron arose the
screams of the injured and the groans of
the dying.
4 man. pinned down by a truck bar
across his chest. d widening stain of Grim
son spreading over the white bosom
of his evening shirt called for some one
to care for the woman who lay dead across
his feet: girl. uninjured. but frightened
senseless by the horror of the scene. wrung
her hands and laughed Historically. and.
amid all the other horrd sounds that
followed the crash of the cars little
killed and whose father was fatally in
jured, kept calling repeatedly insistent-
IT, in frightened childish treble for his
mamma to come and take him away.
Those persons who observed the trag-
edy from the porches OF their homes
nearby or who heard the almost explos-
i've detonation that marked the collision
were quick to do all in their power for
the sufferers. But some of them were
almost overcome when they rached the
twisted pile of wreckage and saw in the
fading light of the early dusk the horrors
it held. And If it had not been that
Richard Wend. lineman, was on his
way home from Camp Parole. where he
had been busy with repair work all day
long. it would have been much longer ere
assistance reached those to whom 1t was
OF some avail Immediately after the ac-
cident he climbed the first telephone pole
In sight and cut in with his portable in
strument, calling up the offices OF the
road.
Relief Car Hurried to Scene.
Vice President and General Manager
Shanahan and Treasurer Gladfelter were
the first officers of the road to reach the
scene of the wreck, Shanahan proceeding
from Baltimore and the treasurer mum
Academy Junction.
4 relief car was promptly ssnt. 3spm
Annapolis with physicians and nln7aD0o