The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1918-11-02
MORE THAN 100
DEAD IN WRECK
TON B. R. Thine
Green Motorman Sends Express
Crashing Against Walls
FIRE ADDS TO HORROR
Trains Were Packed with Workers
and Shoppers Many Of Those on
/ Board Were Children

New York. Nov. More than 100
bodies had been removed late tonight
from what is known as the Malbone
street tunnel on the Brighton Beach
line OF the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
company and double that number are
known to have been injured, when a
five car train running at high speed,
jumped the track on curve and
struck the side wall with such terrific
force that the first car was demolish-
ed and the others "buckled'' until they
we're jammed against the roof of the
tunnel The train, which carried
nearly 800 passengers. was in charge
Of green motorman
The tragedy marked the first day of
a strike called by the companys mo-
tormen to enforce the reinstatement
OF 29 discharged members of the
Brotherhood OF Locomotive Engineers
as ordered by the National War Labor
Beard
District Attorney Lewis OF Kings
county declared all the officials of the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit company. and
every person connected in any way
with the accident has been ordered
/ placed under arrest He asserted the
company was Withholding the name OF
the mOtorman il was reported. how.
ever, that the man in charge Of the
train formerly was employed as a
train dispatcher.
There is no doubt Mr. Lewis
said, that the motorman of the lead
ing train was going at high rate oi
speed when he made the turn into the
cut The front car jumped the track
and buckled The train following rar
into the stalled car
According to survivors of the wreck
the motorman evidently was unused
to the road. as he was compeifun tr
back up at one point when he had
taken the wrong switch.
Both trains were iammed with pas
sengers. as the strike had resulted il
material reduction in service ant
consequent delay.
Immediately after the crash the
wrecked cars burst into flame, addini
TO the terror OF those who had escaped
injury and increasing the peril o
those pinned in the wreckage.
Police reserves from dozen sta
tions we're rushed to the scene OF th'
accident and they Immediately sent il
calls for all the ambulances in Brook
lyn, while Manhattan hospitals werI
asked for assistance The fire depar
ment also was asked for aid.
Rescue work was retarded by th
fact that the crash occurred in a dee
cut II was difficult for relief work
ers or survivors to Chamber up an,
down the steep concrete walls o
what Is known as the Malbone stree
tunnel
The injured and dead were CARRIE
up ladders taken from fire apparatus
Charred bodies were placed in burla
bags to shroud them from the gaze O
the thousands OF persons who gather
ed within few minutes after the co
lision. Policemen and 1remen wer
literally mobbed by frenzied men an
women who feared the burdens the
carried might be members of thei
own families,
Hundreds OF reserves formed a COZ
, don around the tunnel and KEEP
back the great throng from the Ion
line of ambulances which came clanl
ing from every direction
, More than 100 members of the We
! mems Motor Corps of America RI
Z sponded with their cars 10 the call 70
help. All kinds OF vehicles wer
l. pressed into service to carry the dea
r and injured to hospitals and morgue'
, Twenty-Five bodies had been receive
at the Kings county morgue at |
O'clock
The trains were packed with worl
ers in Manhattan and with shopper
4 who had been detained on the Ne'
n York side of the river by the crush I
\ the Brooklyn bridge station resultin
II from the reduced train service Man
|, Of those on board were children,
New York. Nov. with the deaf
toll placed at 9S by the police rigi
Investigations are under way today b
( the public service commission distriC
attorney and Mavor liylan to dete
mine the blame for las nights wrec
Of the Brighton Beach train In ih
} Malhone street uneel at Brooklyl
\ Yesterdays strike of motormen an
motor swilchmen, OF which the acc
dent is said to have been the ou
growth was settled early today WI
liam Lewis, motorman of the ill.fate