The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-30
Crowd Was Returning From Ball Park. NONE WAS SERIOUSLY
 HURT IN BAD PANIC Accident Occurred on Capitol
 Heights. wev. J. O. Noble Was Knocked uncon- sssus - Several Ladies Were Gut and Bruised - Crowd wss Frightened by Appreach to
 Trestles

lieved to have saved many lives from destruction, occurred late yesterday afternoon on Electric Park Line street cars where, upon discovery an air brake on one of the cars was out of adjustment, there was enlightened cry of jump" Immediately the pas sengers on three cars, which were still moving, 'leaped from them and some of those leaping for safety fell and were injured.
 sRev. John o. Noble. of sS Virginia avenue was perhaps the most painfully injured of all those who were hurt. The extent of his injuries had not been finally determined.
 Others hurt were Miss Edith Meyer of 519 Montgomery street; Mrs. Simon Well, of 511 Montgomery street; Mrs wheeless formerly Miss Willie Stal- linKs who is visiting her parents, MT. and Mrs. W. O. Stallings, at lOS Hoi- combe street; a negro named Foster.
 The way in which the accident oc- cured was remarkable.
 Car No. 37, of the Montgomery Trac- tion Company, with nearly one hun dred and fifty persons, was coming down a steep grade, following train composed of a trolley car and trail CT. both heavily laden with passengers. Feeling that the air brake of No. SI had become ineffective Motorman Mc- Cain tried it and then blew his whistle as a warning to the car ahead.
 Almost immediately from both cars there was a cry that there would be a collision and the people jumped , None of the cars was derailed and all of them were stopped without great difaculty.
 1t was the sight of trestle over railway track ahead that caused the intensity of fear. The thought that the cars might collide on the trestle and hurl every person aboard them to death naddened them with fright and without hesitation nearly every person leaped
 men being scattered along the high way, and more than one of them mar rowly escaping death.
 Different Narratives.
 The narratives told of the accident of yesterday differ, the running men of the cars telling a story varied in some details from the stories told by passen- gers on the cars.
 The chief points of difference are fin the recounting of the distances and the manner in which the cars were stopped.
 On Car S7 the men in charge were Motorman Mccain and Conductor Hud- gins. In their statement to the officers of the Traction Company last night they said that the car, following a troll ley with trailer attached paused on the crest of the hill at Capital Heights to allow the cars ahead to draw the prop CT distance of safety between them. Never allowing his car to attain speed of more than five miles, the mo- |, al md a lnSR control on account of the failure of the air brakes to take"
 Immediately he said he began to stop the car with the handbrakes. Sudden ly some men In the front of the car ad- vised him to blow the whistle as warning to the cars a head. No sooner had he done so Mir. Mccain said, that passenger cried,
 Hes lost control of the carp
 Then the stampede began the cars were not within hundred feet of each other. Mir. Mccain said. and there was no danger of collision.
 Passengers Say Brakes Failed.
 But according to the stories told by some passengers the handbrakes on NO s7 failed, too. One version was that when the airbrakes failed of effective ness and the forward mandrake gave way, when it's utilization was attempt ed the car had to be stopped with the after brake.
 Some of the passengers declared also that 1t was the motorman on No. S1 that raised the cry of alarm.
 'sNo matter who raised 1t think 1t saved many lives" said one passenger who escaped alive, but scratched. ''When the cars were frightened the brakes took hold and stopped them"
 On the cars ahead. a big double trucker with a trailer the two carry krnyn f1ArA was 5ut one version.
 ''We heard a whistle, looked behind. saw a car hurtling upon us, somebody yelled collision and jump and we Jumped"
 The cars leading the procession of frightened passengers had come within a comparatively short distance of the trestle that spans the Central of Geor- gta Railway and 1t was the fear that the collision would occur on the tres tie that made the panic so universal Neither the motorman nor the conduc- for on the cars ahead could do any thing to avert danger as to pause might have meant calamity and an accelera- tion of the cars might have caused trouble on the heavy grade.
 Fantastic Flights From Cars.
 There were some fantastic flights from the cars. and it is remarkable that more persons were not dangerous " nurC or klliSu
 More than once large men in their mad rush to leave the cars swept en- tire benches of their occupants and with the lighter flesh that they carried before them made little piles of human ity along the roadway. Several men and women, in their haste to escape. failed of securing a steady footing and fell, their faces being cut and their bodies bruised.
 One young woman escaped by just a hairs breadth. As she leaped from car she was jostled by another person also in a hurry and she fell immediate ly before the wheels She was pulled out just before the wheels touched her.
 Physicians on Cars.
 Physicians returning from the ball Kame that had lured so many into danger immediately attended the in- 5ured. Rev. Mfr. Noble was taken to St. Afargaret's Hospital by Alderman Berto H. Johnson who happened to arrive with c buggy. Others were taken to their homes in carriages and auto mobiles or in the cars. Most of them were suffering only from bruises and RbrAstons of the skin.
 Poster. 6 negro, was reported at first h@;h&Ra been a ytstta 10 the extent or