The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-02
HUNDRED DIE WHEN BROOKLYN ELEVATED
 TRAIN IS DEMOLISHED
(Continued from Page one)


 what assistance they could until po- lice and firemen arrived.
 According to the passengers it became
 evident soon after the leading train left Brooklyn bridge that the motor man was unfamiliar With the line, which runs on the elevated struc- ture until it reached Franklin ave-
 nue, where it descends gradually to
 the surface and enters the cut. When the train reached the tunnel, passengers told the police, the motor man failed to slacken speed as he lear left the track and plunged into the concrete wall, dragging the cars be- | hind with it.
 James Monahan. Brooklyn fireman, who was standing on the rear platform ] of the first train, and who saved his l life by jumping, declared he believed ] the motorman had lost control of the 1 train as 1t went around a curve into | the cut. Looking back, he said, he saw ! another train close behind Just be- bore the crash he seized two girls who were on the platform with him and leaped, landing in pile of stones. Ex- l cept for bruises, all three of them eS- i capped injury.
 l The gloomy tunnel was quickly con- verted into shambles. The wreckage burst into flames, increasing the inde- scribable panic among the passengers. Almost every passenger in the first car was killed or desperately injured. 1 Many of those unable ito drag them- selves free of the wreckage are be- 1 lieved to have been burned to death. Dozens of the bodies removed were
 charred beyond recognition and only a few of them have been identified late | | ,,,-l,A I1,, crushed in as the train sideswiped the tunnel wall and many of the pas
 sengers were ground to death against 1 the concrete.
 1 Frantic survivors scrambled madly | to climb up the side walls of the cut
 on either side of the tunnel. Their i screams and the shrieks of the injured brought hundreds of persons living in the vicinity to their aid. but organized /, rescue work was, not possible until the arrival of police reserves and fireinen. who lowered ladders to the tracks and carried up them tie bodies of the dead. | Stretchers from the scores of ambu- jlances which responded to hurried calls | for help were lowered into the cut and the injured lashed to them so they could be taken out. The bodies were taken to the Snyder avenue police station un- | til there was no more room for them there and then the platform of the Prospect Park station, a block below | the wreck, was used as temporary morgue.
 l It was not until hours afterward. when mothers and fathers, wives and | husbands, became alarmed at the ab | sence of their loved ones and learned l of the wreck that they besieged the morgue. Women screamed and fainted when they came upon the bodies they hoped they would not find and it was necessary to establish a temporary hos pital to care for those overcome by their grief.
 The resucers who arrived first found women and girls with their arms around each other pinned beneath seats,
 In the first car passengers were crushed against the roof Some of them had
 been pierced with splinters of wood, while others had been mortally wound ed by broken glass. In the heart of the wreckage under tons of debris. even the police and firemen were aghast at the carnage they came, upon. Al most every body was mutilated beyond recognition.
 Members of the Woman's Motor Corps of America, who responded with their cars to calls for help, went into the tun- nel to comfort and succor men. women and children who were alive and con scious, but pinned down by the wreck age so they could not be removed. Many of the passengers died in the arms
 of the young women who had come to aid them.
 Ambulance surgeons did what they could to remove the distress of the in-
 jured, binding up the wounds as best they might by the flickering light of automobile lamps and electric torches. Passengers declared sthat the train
 was run at terrific speed all the way to the tunnel after Brooklyn bridge had been passed. Women and children were frightened and vowed they would
 get out but the crush in the train was so great they could not reach the doors. Most of them declared the motorman, who is being sought by the police,
 must have paid with his life the penalty
 for his reckless speed.
 SAYS MOTORMAN EXPERIENCED
 President. Williams of the Brooklyn