The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1911-07-20
TRAIN FALLS FROM
BRIDGE; IS DEAD
Flames Destroyed Portion of
Wreck in Bridgeport Streets.
st. Louis Baseball Players
Escaped and Helped
Rescue Injured.


the Federal Express. bound from
| Washington TO Boston, a train de luxe
| of the New York, New Haven and
| Hartford Railroad, struck an open
switch on the Fairfield Avenue over
| head crossing in the outskirts of this
/ Sfty at 1870 y. NJ. today and the loco
| motive, tender, mail and baggage cars
and four Pullman sleepers. loaded
| with passengers. crashed to the street
! fifteen feet below, in a tangled mass
| of wreckage. Many were killed and
| injured. The two rear cars of the
train, pullman sleepers, containing
] twenty-five members of the st. Louis
National League baseball team, were
the only ones remaining on the track.
thirteen were killed and forty-fiVe
injured, perhaps fatally.
Within five minutes after the wreck
nfteen nremen were on the scene and
the flames that Immediately burst
from the wreck were eXtinguished
The wreck was caused by an open
switch. Confusion was so great that
| il was impossible to definitely fix the
responsibility for this, but the rail-
road officials intimated that it was
due to the carelesSnesS Of the operator
In the signal tower on the overhead
crossing.
When the police and amublances
from the hospitals arrived they could
see little in the darkness but a twist
ed, piled up heap or wood and steel.
With the aid of all the members of
moned to the grim task, lighted by
| lanterns and flares improvIsed on the
spot, the work of relieving the dead
and injured was begun.
| 1t was sometime before the first
body was recovered and then they
were given up by the wreckage SO
that an accurate list could not be
given.
The injured. many of them beyond
all medical aid, were removed to St
Nincent's Hospital. Bridgeport, and
the Wright Hospital. while persons
living near the scene of the catas-
trophe threw their homes open to the
less severely injured.
Every doctor in Bridgeport was
called to the scene and worked fran
lucally in the midst of the wreckage.
AS the crash came when all the pas
sengers were in their berths, the work
OF Identifying the victims proved Most
difficult.
The ball players narrowly escaped
death i'm the wreck. All of them were
- badly shaken up.
Fell Thirty Feet.
Five coaches were completely de-
molished when the train plunged off
the thirty-foot trestle. Two PuIlmans
carrying the ball players did not leave
the tracks. All the other coaches
rolled down an embankment
The players assisted in rescuing the
passengers in the day coach, all OF
Whom were injured.
- Roger Bresnahan and Ivey Winpo
probably saved a woman's life when
, they, in their bare feet and attired
, from the debris, where the fire had
! started, Prompt work on the part OF
the bridgeport fire department saved
= scores from being roasted to death.
Bali Players Had Close Call.
r A mistake by the train crew prob
I ably saved the bali players lives
Philadelphia their cars occupied the
fourth and nth coaches from the en-
CINE when the train was backed on
r the ferry at Manhattan island il was
divided into four sections Of three cars
each; In making over the train after
4 landing of the East River the section
e carrying the ball players was tackled
! on at the rear OF the train. That put
z Sallee. Harmon. Steele, Golden. bliss
| Ellis, Evans and Cakes in the last
eoach; Manager Bresnahan. Treasurer
= Wingo, Smith. the two Undermine
{ Geyer and two newspaper men occu-
pied the second last coach.
I Everybody awoke in huddled mass
: in the aisle of the Pullman a few min
utes before the fire.
The train had come to a sudden stor
and the cars carrying the ball pIay-
S ers, becoming derailed. keeIed over
e against a telegraph pole. Then Bres-
: screams or some Of the young men
: and Roger admOnished his players &c
> t lake their time and get out. In less
IMAM minute the players were
scurrying out OF the coach in theil
bare feet. Soon the screames of womer
in the cars were heard. and Manager
Bresnahan and Ed Honey headed .
= reHeI corps TO the scene of the disas
the players piled in and helped extri
I coach. VIC
Walter Smith rescued two infants
f who were found in the wreckage
- without so much as scratch.
wen nigh two hours passed befor,
, relief train arrived.
' MOST OF the Cardinal uniforms wer
lost IN the wrecked baggage car Mil
II Ter. Higgins. Hauser. Bresnahan
. clothes. 'iiS'
r Both Engineer and Fireman Killed
riding in the day coach with hi
= wife was w. II. Sanverders. of New
8 London, Conn. He was thrown abou
" ana escaped with severe Sprains an,
If a few slight cuts while the cIothin,
% mad to be cut off his wife in order 4
release her from the wreckage Witt
his bare hands he tore away tn
burning cloth and wood, putting on
the flames. Across the aisle from hin
was man who was killed.
= The conductor of the wrecke
- traln' Michael Furey, Of Rochelle, \
- Z, escaped with severe cuts on hi
lie head.
f. The body of tie engineer was foun
on the elevated structure, alongsid
To- OF the open switch. He had jumped
N only 10 be run over by the train.
&C. Under the locomotive, which lay i
a. the street a mass of twisted junI
- was the body of the fireman.
- The splintered remains of the Pull
- man day coach, the third car of tn
. train, held more dead and injure
t than any of the others. In what ha
m been the middle of the car scuer
~ found the bodies of four men, a VIC
50 man and a child, piled in a heap.
- second child lay crying on top of tn
mound of the dead. apparently unir
- Jured. Her shrieks led the rescueI
~ to the car.
a. Row of Dead.
~ A morgue was hastily improvise
~ on a nearby lawn and the bodies weI
&c laid out there in a row and covere
with sheets from the sleeping cars.
Ia The enormous mass of Wreckae
an completely blocked Fairfield Avenu
20 which is one of the city's main thor
~ oughfares The wreck of the big Pa
. cihc type locomotive was Uttered frol
curb to curb, with the remains of til
mail car on top of it and the bal
gage on top of that. The Pullman
. were reduced to kindling wood.
h, The bodies of eight of the dea
de were taken out from the south sic
er of the wreck and two were take
=" from the north side.