The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-11-02
500 Passengers in Rush
Hour Trip Home Caught
in Flatbush Crash.
JUMP TRACKS ON CURVE
Police and Firemen Chop
Out ScOched Bodies in
Search for Survivors.
MOTORMAN is ARRESTED
District Attorney Lewis Says
Recklessness and 25 Year
Old Cars Are to Blame.

One hundred and twenty dead 200
injured and more than 900 persons
in peril was the known toll this
morning from a wreck on the Brook
lyn Rapid Transit Railroad at Z
o'clock last night in which a five car
train bound from Brooklyn Bridge
to Coney Island on the Brighton
Beach line jumped the track in the
tunnel between Malbone street and
lincoln road.
The train went headlong into q
solid concrete. abutment, feHF-cf the
five cars were crushed, and the
wreckage, containing many bodies,
caught f1re. 1t was the worst acci-
dent in the history of New York's
rapid transit system.
Early this morning Anthony Lewis,
motorman OF the wrecked train, was
placed under arrest charged with
homicide. He said 1t was the first
time he had ever taken train over
the line, being dispatcher impressed
into service in yesterdays emer-
gency.
The accident came In the midst of
a strike yesterday on the elevated
and subway lines of the Brooklyn
Rapid Transit Company, in when
perhaps 500 motormen and motor
switchmen went out upon the order
sf t'a Brotherhood Of Locomotive En-
.tnecrs to enforce the reinstatement
OF twenty-nine discharged men and
the right of the employees oe the
.sstem to join the union. as affirmed
by the War Labor Board. The strike
was settled early this morning.
The motorman started from Brook
lyn Bridge during the heavy rush hour
with train packed to the guards.
The heavy travel to Flatbush was rep
resented thoroughly in the passenger
list. There were perhaps 900 passen-
gers. They noticed as the train went
around the sharp curve just beyond
the Brooklyn end OF the bridge that
il was proceeding with more than usual
speed. The train proceeded into Full
ton street and when 1t reached Frank
lin avenue, where 1t should have taken
a turn south, the motorman kept ahead
in Fulton street for some distance.
Train Crashes Into Concrete.
Then he backed up to the switch
and proceeded on the proper route.
The train had passed Ebbets Field
and had reached a point where new
construction is under way. -Four
tracks are in the cut. Two of them
lead TO the city and two wind their
way toward Coney Island. Because
of the new construction work only
.wo of the tracks, those on the south
bound lines. are being used. The
motorman started into the new tunnel
at a fast clip when his train jumped
the track and went headlong into the
side concrete work being built along
The cut.
Then came the smash.
The wooden cars were crushed like egg
shells. There was sound OF screams
from the tightly packed cars that was
heard in stores and homes for blocks
around. Men and women fought. The
first car of the train was ripped from
front to rear. The second car. the third
and the fourth piled up on the first as
the latter wedged across the track.
The second car. riding the roof OF the
first, made a gaping hole In the roof OF
the tunnel. and the third, telescoping
the second, overturned both. In the
fourth car. in which the only survivors
we're found there was the widest panic
fNe persons I'm this car believe every
une in the car ahead was either killed
or injured.
Flames started as the wreckage short
G!rcuited the third rail. The interior of
ne tunnel was momentarily lighted with