The copper era and Morenci leader. [volume] (Clifton, Ariz.) 1911-1929, 1913-08-15

After a careful investigation by
the coroner's jury, and officials o1
the Arizona Copper Company, Ltd.
the fact has been established, beyond
a reasonable doubt, that the accident
which caused the heavy loss of life
was due to the breaking of draw.
bar on the ore car to which the Cor
onado incline cable was attached.
The Coronado incline on Wednes
day afternoon, shortly after four o.
clock, was, the scene of the most ter
rible and horrifying accident in the
history of the operation of the Ari-
zona Copper Company, Ltd, in this
district.
Two steel ore cars, carrying a load
of approxim lately twelve tons of ore
and sixteen human beings, broke
way from the wire cable, just at the
top of the incline, as the cars were
being lowered over the 'knuckle, %
and in a second were dashing down
the incline rails to destruction thirty
three hundred feet below.
The car tenders had attached the
long cable. All the couplings were
properly made. Everything was in
readiness for the descent. The en-
gineer on top in the brake house
gently released the right hand brake.
The sixteen passengers had taken
seats on top of the ore or were stand
ing on the ends Of the cars. The
cars began to move gently over the
knuckle. The long wire cable tight
ened and then-there was a sharp
report, followed by a second report
The drawbar had parted. The en-
gineer, standing a few feet above in
the brake house, leaned far out of
his window with blanched face and
horror stricken eyes and shouted:
''Jump!" Before he could form the
word with his lips the two heavily
loaded cars were off like flash. AS
they gathered momentum on that
steep mountain incline they attained
the speed of bullet For eight
hundred feet the cars held to the
rails. Then there was nothing but
a streak of fire and a cloud of dust
and debris, and two thousand feet
down the incline, on the left hand
side going down, lay the beds of the
cars, twisted and battered, but still
coupled together, and along the right
of way were the mangled and disfig-
ured bodies of five Americans, two
Mexicans and two Italians. Nine
lives had been snuffed out within less
than half a second, while further up
towards the top could be seen five
Americans, two MeXicanS and a little
Mexican boy, crawling their way
back over the knuckle of the incline,
bleeding and bruised.
Seven were saved by their lnstan-
taneous instinct to jump, upon the
realization that something was wrong.
Nine cluRg to their seats, frozen to
their posts with terror, and rode two
thousand feet to sudden and sure
death.
Gathering Up the Dead.
Residents of the town of Metcalf,
at the foot of the Coronado incline,
witnessed the accident. The best
description obtainable from those
who witnessed the disaster say all
they could see was a streak of dust
and fire. They started on the run
for the foot of the incline and the
news spread like wild fire. Eager
and willing citizens of Metcalf climb
ed the incline on the run but as they
stopped over the mangled forms,
some of them multilated almost be-
yond identification, they saw that
they were beyond the power of hu-
man assistance. All that they could
do was to gather up the remains of
the nine dead men whose bodies lay
scattered among the rocks and de-
bris which marked the course of the
flying cars after they left the rails
of the incline. Slowly the bodies of
Schafer, Mccain, Cardwell, Johnson,