Middletown transcript., 1916-08-26
TRAIN HITS AUTO
FIVE ARE KILLED
John QuilIen, His Wife and Two
Children Are Dead.
THE CHAUFFEUR A VICTIM
The CULLEN Car Stopped Suddenly in
the Track and the Train Rushed
Upon It-Warnings Given,
Says Engineer.

| gu dllu AOuF injured Wlon the PennSyl-
vania o'clock A. NJ train struck the
car of John Quillen, at the state road
crossing, about a half-mile from Berlin.
The dead are John Quillen, his wife
and two children. Dennard, eight
years old, and Norman, aged three, and
Henry Predeau, the colored chauffeur.
The injured are the oldest daughter
OF the Quillen family, with broken
thigh and internal injuries; another
| daughter, about 10; a son, six years
old, and daughter of four, both with
fractured skulls and serious internal
injuries, as well as many bones broken.
The last two are not expected to re.
cover.
The car, driven by Predeau, in which
Quillen and his wife and six children
We're riding, had stopped at a soda
fountain 10 minutes before the acci-
dent, and Quillen had purchased ice
cream cones fer the family. They had
| driven to the Berlin ice plant, and
after driving around the building,
turned again on the Ocean City road
toward home. The distance to the rail-
road crossing, after this turn, is about
200 yards. DR.. H. S. Purnell, of Ber-
lin, came along in his car at that time
and was following the Quillen car at
distance Of about so yards
Story of Eyewitness.
DR.. Puinell stated that he heard the
train coming before he noticed that the
CULLEN car was in danger.
"Quillen's car" he said, slowed down
and | did so, too, because l knew that
the train must pass before l could
cross the tracks.
81 suppose that the car ahead of me
had crossed the track and slowed down.
The car driven by Predeau stopped sud
denly and at that moment the train
rushed upon it. The car was swept
upon the pilot and carried down tho
tracks. A strange feature of the acci-
dent was that though the car was
struck squarely in the middle and car
ried along ahead of the engine for over
200 yards before the train could be
fell from the wreck until it was
brought to standstill."
Ample Warning.
At the point where the accident hap
pened, the concrete state read crosses
the tracks nearly at right angles. The
train struck the car from the right
side, where Predeau sat There is no
obstruction on the road to have pre-
vented the driver from seeing the train
approach. The engineer stated that
the bell Of the locomotive was ringing
and that the whistle was sounded for
the crossing.
1t would appear that the driver
thought he had time to make the cross
ing, then seeing that 1t was too late,
but not realizing that he was on the
tracks, he suddenly applied the brakes,
thus stopping his car just as the train
reached the spot
Was Slowing Down.
The engineer, C. w. McCleary, gave
the following account of the accident:
II had shut off power just after we
left the woods to slow down for the
curve"
The curve is one-quarter OF a mile
from the crossing. The whistle was
blown and the bell sounding when we
approached the crossing. l was look
ing from my window Of the cab and
could see the lights of car ahead of |
me and one behind the one we struck. |
On the latter only one small light was
showing and could not be seen until |
we were right upon it. When this dim |
light became visible the first applica- |
tiOn of the brakes had been made for |
stopping at the Berlin Station, so that |
our speed was about 80 or 35 miles per
hour.
"The emergency was applied as soon |
as l saw the light and the train could |
not possibly have been stopped sooner |
AS the train stopped A. S. Pollitt, the
fireman, swung to the ground and ran
ahead. He found the eldest daughter |
with her feet entangled in the wreck |
age. She was crying My feet! My |
feet" He raised part of the car and
she fell free. I lifted her aside and
went to release the little girl who was
still conscious.
''The colored man fell from the
wreck to the side of the track, dead.
The woman, however, was still gasp
ing when l reached her. The white
man, too, was dead. One of the chill
dren breathed for few minutes after
the train stopped. Their groans were
terrible. did net hear any one scream
when the car was struck, due to the
engines noise.
Parts of the car dropped away along
the track from the crossing to where
the stop was made and the parts left
upon the pilot were crushed into an
unrecognizable mass. Parts of the car
were driven between the bars of the
pilot, so that they had to be removed
with crowbars. The pilot was torn al.
most away and had to be removed be-
fore the train could proceed