Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-07-02
Screaming Men and Women
Fight to Escape Before
Water Is Reached.
UNABLE TO HOLD FOOTING
ON STEEP RIVER BANK
Less Than Half Minute From
First Earring Sway Until Car Is
Upside Down on Bottom.
GUARDsN1EN FIRST TO RESCUE ,11
Many of Passengers Pinioned Be.
meath Surface by Seats
Loosened in Impact.

BY Associated Press
NIAGARA FALLS. July IA belt
line car on the Great Gorge Route left
the rails. plunged down a twenty-foot
embankment. and turned over in ten
pool Rapids at $3.50 o'clock this after
noon. a3i
Nine persons are known to be dead.
two persons known to have been on
the car have not been seen since the
accident. and probably are dead. an in
definite number. estimated at from
two to ten. arc reported missing. and /
more than score arc in hospitals. sur
fering from injuries received in tho
accident
A washout, due to recent heavy rains, &
was the cause of the disaster which
occurred just below the Cantilever&
Bridge, and sixty feet below the point
where the smooth water OF the upper
reaches OF the Niagara River break
into the turbulent waters of the Whirl-4
pool Rapids. >------4-
The car was in charge of Motorman
Louis Il. Crandall and Conductor Alex
ander Heron. 1t 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 moro than fifty passengers ON
board. according to general estimates.
The car was one OF the open type.
the seats extending from side to side,
with steps on both sides the full length
of the car. All the seats were occu-
pied. and some of the passengers were
standing between them, and there were
others on the rear platform.
RUNNING AT 70 MILES AN HOUR
WHEN WEAK SPOT IS STRUCES
The car was running at speed OF
about twenty miles an hour when 1t
struck the weak spot in the roadbed.
Less than half n minute elapsed from
the time the motorman felt the first
jarring sway until the car was bottom,
side up on the edge of the rushing
rapids.
AS 1t slipped down the twenty-foot4,
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 obtain a footing on the steep bank.
There was a mad scramble In the
shallow water between the wrecked
car and the river hank. From the
river side, the bodies of at least two
of the passengers were seen to be
caught in the swifter water. and We're s
carried down to the whirlpool. 63#
Members OF National Guard resi-R
ment who were on guard at the Cam
tilever Bridge saw the accident and
were the first to the rescue. The sol-S
diers slid down the bark 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 ~
hospital.
The supports of tho roof on the for
ward part of the car had been crushedB
by tho impact OH the rocks In the
river bottom. throwing the seats to-
sether. This pinioned many CT the
passengers below the surface of the
water. and it was in this section OF
the car that most OF the fatalities oc-
CURED.
SOLDIER RELIEVES SEVERAL
BODIES WE'RE CARRIED DOwSE
Il believe at least hali dozen bodies
were carried lown the river to thesi
Whirlpool said one Of the soldiers.
who was taken TO n hospital to rs-f
cover from exhaustion.
when was running down the rail. 81
road tracks l saw out in the Strean{s
what seemed to me to be two arms )
raised above tha surface. Ten feet@
away frrm them l am sure I saw THE \
bright color OF wonian's dress near
the surface. and still further downs a i
man was Sw WINNING in an effort to get 8
out OF the rapids. He disappeared.%sss3;gs s.
Conductor Heron was in the f0r-ss
ward part of the car collecting the last +
OF tho Ssges. lie was thrown from this {
running Board and crushed to~de1th asS
the car toppled over.
The soldiers in the rescue party were
in the water at the side of tho wrecleedy s
car for more than two hours with tflsGi
water up to their waists. The in3ursdsl
were hoisted up the twenty-foot en-
bankment with ropes q,
Private Joseph Crowley saved a.
lives OF two girls by holding their hsads Z;
above water whilc others worked "a, B
free their bodies from tho wreckage.