Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1917-07-02
Leaves Track Below CantiIever
Bridge on American Side of
Niagara and Turns Bottom
Up in Stream.
CAUSE OF ACCIDENT SAID
TO HAVE BEEN WASH0UT
Number Of Passengers on Car
Not Definitely Known; Had
Carrying Capacity Of go and
Was Well Filled.


Niagara Falls, N. Y, July IA
belt line car on the Great Gorge route
left the rails, plunged down a twenty
foot embankment and turned over in
ten feet of water on the edge OF the
Whirlpool radips at $3.50 o'clock this
afternoon.
Nine persons are known to be dead.
the car have not been seen since the
accident and probably are dead; an
indefinite number estimated at from
two to ten are reported missing, and
more than a score in hospitals suffer-
ing from injuries received in the ac-
cident.
A washout due to recent heavy
rains was the cause of the disaster,
which occurred just below the canti-
lever bridge and sixty feet below the
point where the smooth water of the
upper reaches of the Niagara river
breaks into the turbulent whirlpool
rapids.
Passengers Fight to Escape,
The car had all but 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 passengers
on board. according to general esu-
mates.
The car was running at a speed of
twenty miles an hour. AS II slipped
down the twenty-foot incline from the
tracks to the edge of the river
screaming men and women fought to
escape and some of them were able
to get free, but were unable to OBJ
tain footing on the steep bank.
There was a mad scramble in the
shallow water between the wrecked
car and the river bank. From the
riverside the bodies of at least two of
the passengers were seen to be caught
in the swifter waters AID were car
ried down to the Whirlpool.
Guardsrnen First to Rescue.
Members of a nationai guard regi-
ment who were on guard at the 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 passengers free from the
wreckage and passing them up the
bank, where an emergency car had
been placed to carry them to the
Niagara Falls hospital.
The supports of the roof from the
forward part of the car had been
crushed by the impact on the rocks In
the river bottom. throwing the seats
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 oc-
CURED.
II believe at least half dozen
bodies were carried down the river
to the Whirlpool said one of the
soldiers, who was taken to hospital
to recover from exhaustion. when l
was running down the railroad tracks
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 d
woman's dress near the surface, and
still further down man was SWIM
ming In an effort to get out of the
rapids. He disappeared"
Some of Missing Found.
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 hos
pitals and hotels later in the evening"
1t was certain. however. that In the
holiday crowd there were many maxi
ing the trip unaccompanied.
Il. f. Nicklis, superintendent of the
gorge railroad. issued a statement late
tonight placing the number Of dead
and missing at fourteen. All the other
passengers on the car had been ac-
counted for. he said.