The Glenwood post., 1917-07-07
NEARLY SCORE PERISH
AT EDGE OF NIAGRA

Niagara Falls, July IA Belt line
car of the Great Gorge route left the
rails, plunged down a twenty-foot en-
ban kment and turned over in ten feet
of water on the edge Of the Whirlpool
Rapids at $3.50 clock this evening.
Nine persons are known to be dead,
two persons known to have been on the
ear have not been seen since the acc:-
dent and probably are dead; an indefi-
mite number estimated at from two to
ten are reported missing and more than
IA score are in hospitals suffering from
injuries received in the accident.
A washout due to recent heavy rains
was the cause of the disaster, which
occurred just below the cantilever
bridge sixty feet below the point where
the smooth water of the upper reaches
of the Niagara river breaks into the
turbulent Whirlpool rapids.
The car had been making the
cult of the gorge, having crossed from
trolly bridge at Lewiston. There were
more than fifty passengers on boart.
according to general estimates.
The car was running at speed Of
twenty miles an hour. AS it slipped
down the twenty foot incline from the
tracks to the edge of the river scream
ing men and women fought to escape
and some Of them We're able to get
free, but were unable to obtain Il foot-
ing on the steep bank.
There was a mad scramble in the
shallow water between the wrec ied car
and the river bank From the river
side the bodies of at least two of the
passengers We're seen to be caught in
the swifter water and were carried
down to the Whirlpool
Members of a national guard regimen
who were on guard at the bridge SAW
rescue. The soldiers slid down the
bank into the river and worked in wa
ter up to their waists getting injured
passengers free from the wreckage and
passing them up the bank where an
emergency car had been placed to con-
vey them to the Niagara Falls hospital.
The supports Of the roof on the for
ward part of the-csrs3had been. crushed
by the impact on the rocks in the river
bottom, throwing the seats together.
This pinioned may of the passengers
below the surface of the water and it
was in this section of the care that
most of he fatalities occurred.
81 believe at least half dozen
bodies were carried down the river to
the Whirlpool said one of the soldiers
who was taken to a hospital to recover
from exhaustion. "When / was run
ming down the railroad tracks ! saw
out in the stream what seemed to me TO
be arms raised above the surface. Ten
feet away from them | am sure | saw
the bright color of woman's dress
near the surface and still further down
man was swimming in an effort to
get out of the rapids. He disappeared. -
The statement by the guardsman was
the most definite obtainable as to the
number of persons carried down the
river.
Nearly a score of persons were re
ported to the police as missing, but
most of them were located in hospitals
and hotels later in the evening 1t was
certain, however, that in the holido. :.
crowd there were many making the
"trip unacaOmpanied.
f. E. Nicklis, superintendent of the
Gorge railroad, issued statement late
tonight placing the number Of dead
and missing passengers at fourteen. All
the other passengers on the car hai
been accounted for, he said