New-York tribune., 1912-03-14

which was still upright, although OIL the
rails, and It was turned into field hos
pital. I have no praise" Mr.. Willard
declared, for the way the New York
Central handled the affair. Within three
minutes the officials at Poughkeepsie,
only three miles away. were informed by
telephone as to what had happened, but
II was two hours before a wrecking train
with doctors arrived. =
Doctor or Train Gives Relief.
But there was a doctor-F. c. Warn
shuts, from Grand Rapids, L was told
on the train who was the hero of the oc-
casion in the way Of medical relief. He
flew about and had US almost all ban
daged up before the company doctors
came. He tore up the linen from the
sIeepers and did wonders with the linn
tied facilities he had at hand to work
with.
meanwhile we sat shverinS in the
improvised hospital waiting for aid.
Practically every one Of us was soaked
with that icy water and had nothing to
change TO. Many women and men sat
about in their pajamas and nothing was
done to relieve them for two inter-
minable hours. When the wrecking
train finally did arrive with three doc
tors aboard, the first man to get off to
comfort us was a claims agent, who
sought to compromise whatever claims
any one might have against the company
for a small sum.
"They say it was a broken rail, do
they? Well, 1 don't know; but there was
a passenger I'm the third car, which seems
to have been the first TO feel the result OF
whatever il was that did go wrong, al
though it was not pitched into the river,
who said that there was something
wrong with the mechanism under the
car: every time the car swerved, he said,
there was "a peculiar wrack and sound
TO the car that made him nervous all the
way from Buffalo"
According to the statement made by
the officials of the railroad the train was
not going at a greater speed than forty
five miles an hour when it struck the
defective rail. An examination Of the
rail by their experts showed that the
steel contained the familiar molecular
defects which are held responsible for
most of the failure Of rails when they
give ont under the terrific pounding Of
a rushing train. The rail, it was said,
was of the heaviest type, one hundred
pounds to the yard. and was laid in l9lo.
The curve where the accident took place,
called Rogers curve, il was said, was
not such as to prohibit a speed Of forty
five miles an hour. Records showed
that it had been duly inspected by the
track walkers, but it was said that the
closest inspection on the part Of track
walker would give no hint Of the defect
lurking in the interior Of the rail-
That the thick ice coating of the stream.
acting as a check to the rush Of the top
pling cars as they ploughed through the
shadows near the bank keeping them from
sliding into deep water, probably prevented
a far worse disaster is the opinion of rail-
road men, Had the river been open the
derailed cars would have poughed along
into the river depths and many persons
would undoubtedly have been drowned AS
il was. the ice held the cars, and willie
the water entered the sleepers TO the depth
of the lower berths I'm some OF them and
gave many of the sleeping passengers an
lev bath all were rescued without great
difficulty. Planks were run out 10 the win
Il
their way to shore over these improvised
bridges. The work Of rescue was expe-
dlted by the fact that construction COM
Uany doing work on the road near the
scene of the accident was able promptly TO
bring the much needed planks to the scene.
At 1.15 the second section of the Twen-
tieth Century Express, due at the Grand
Central Terminal at 900, rolled into its
berth laden with the passengers of the
wrecked first section In addition to it's own
load. Among them were all OF those, ac-
cordinC to the officials Of the road, who
had been injured in the accident.
An anxious crowd OF friends and rela-
,ives. gathered by the news of the wreck.
sursed about the gate outside OF track No.
81 when II was finally announced that the
train would be brought In there. Rope
barriers were Immediately thrown up to
keen a passage clear for the passengers TO
come out, no one but the claim agents. at
tendants and officials of the company being
allowed inside the gates on the platform.
Most of the injured persons Were able to
walk, but even so they presented scene
that was not reassuring TO those anxlously
waiting for them. Some limped others
staggered out supported by the helping
hands OF fellow passengers who had not