The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1917-07-02
IA DROWN WHEN
CAR PLUNGES
into NIAGARA
Many Other Persons Are Injured
in Accident on Great Gorge
Trolley. {
PASSENGERS IN WHIRLPOOL
Rescuers Tied With Ropes Work in
SWrllng Water to Save Vic
tims-NationaI Guai dsmen
Aid

Niagara Falls, N. Y, July 2--Eight
persons are known to be dead six per-
sons are missing, making a probable
death toll Of IA, and more THIN a score
are injured as the result of an accident
on the Great Gorge route Sunday after
noon in which trolley car filed with
sightseers left the rails and plunged
down a 20-foot embankment into ten
feet Of water On the edge Of the Whirl-
pool rapids.
Following is a list of tt, dead,
missing and injured:
Dead.
Marion Lloyd Schumaker, A-Ton, o.
j. P. Muck, Princeton Ind.
Mrs. 3. M. Raftery, 1872 Leland ave-
nue., Chicago.
James S. Kemp, Scranton, Pa.
Harvey G. Phelps, Schenectady, N. Y.
Mrs. Bertha Seastrom, Jamestown,
N. Y.
Alexander Heron, Niagara Falls.
Mrs. L. F. Wallace, Akron, o.
Known Missing.
Violet Seastrom, jamestown, N. Y.
s. K. Brown Warren, O.
Rains Cause Disaster.
A washout, due to recent heavy
rains, was the cause of the disaster,
which occurred just below the canti-
lever bridge and 60 feet below the
point where the smooth water of the
upper reaches of the Niagara river
break into the turbulent waters Of the
Whirlpool rapids.
The car was in charge of Motorman
Louis E. Crandall and Conductor Alex
ander Heron. 1t had almost completed
the circuit Of the gorge, having crossed
from the Canadian side of the river on
the trolley bridge at Lewiston.
There were more than fifty passen-
gers on board, according to general es-
timates.
All the seats Of the car were occu-
pied and some of the passengers were
standing between them.
The car was running at a speed Of
about twenty miles an hour when it
struck the weak spot in the rOadbed.
AS 1t slipped down the 20-foot in
cline from the tracks to the edge Of
the Hver, screaming men and women
fought to escape. There was a mad
scramble in the shallow water be-
tween the wrecked car and the river
bank
From the river side the bodies of at
least two of the passengers were seen
to be caught in the sWifter waters and
were carried down to the whirlpool.
Soldiers to Rescue.
Members of q National Guard regi-
ment, who were on guard at the can
tilever bridge, saw the accident and
were the first to the rescue.
The soldiers slid down the bank
into the river and worked In water
up to their waists getting injured pas
sengers free from the wreckage and
passing them UP the bank, where an
emergency car had been placed to
carry them to the Niagara Falls hos
pital.
The supports of the roof of the car
had been crushed by the impact on
the rocks In the river bottom and the
seats had been jammed together This
pinioned many of the passengers below
the surface of the water, and 1T was In
this section of the car that most of the
fatalities occurred.
Sees Victims Drown.
81 believe at least half a dozen
bodies were carried down the river to
the whirlpool" said a soldier who was
taken to hospital to recover from ex-
haustion. "When l was running down
the railroad tracks l saw out in the
stream what seemed to me to be two
arms raised above the surface.
"Ten feet away from them am sure
saw the bright color of q woman's
dress near the surface and still fur
ther down man was swimming in an
effort to get out of the rapids. He dis
appeared"