The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-02
9S BODIES ARE OUT
100 More Injured in New York
Train Wreck.
Indictments Expected To-day as
Result of Accident.

New York. Nov. 2-N,nety- eight
bodies had been taken early today
from the wreck OF the Brighton
Beach irtsrurt,aa train which jumped
the track in 6 trn.el in Brooklyn
Friday night, during the hors,eward
bound rush hour. Mors than 100
were injured. CT, i. s. Williams.
presiGsnt OF the Rrscslyn Rapid
Transit company. and other officials
appeared before District Attorney
Harry E Lewis today at an investi-
CATION which may lead to homicide
indictments being asked OF the grand
jury.
Anthony Lewis. motorman Of the
train, was taken into custody at his
: home early this morning, having fled
from the scene Of the disaster. The
police say he was working as a strike
breaker and that he had practically
no experience as a motorman.
The strike of motormen and switch
men Of the B. r. T. lines was called
off by the strikers after the wreck.
Work of recovering the bodies from
the wreckage damned in the tunnel,
continued turnout the night. A num-
Der OF injured were removed after
having been caught under dead and
doN-l by jagged steel and wooden
splinters, for from eight to ten hours.
1t was believed that every person in
the first car of the train died. This
car was derailed at a sharp bend
going into the tunnel, was thrown
ploushed thru it. The sides were
ripped off the second and third cars
as they scraped the wall of the tun-
mel and many were killed or crippled
by being hurled against the concrete
wall or dashed against steel pillars.
% At a High Speed.
The train was travelling at high
form gates with the 6 o'clock throng
on its way home.
There was a weird scene in the tun-
mel when firemen and police began
removing bodies from the tangle of
debris. The only light was that given
tervals along the track. The shattered
bodies of the victims were laid in rows
and covered with sheets. as fast as it
was possible to disentangle them from
the wreckage.
Immediately after the crash, a con-
fusion of screams and cries went up
from the tumble of twisted and splin-
trying to show rescuers how to extri-
cate them from places where they
were caught. It was fifteen minutes
before any organized rescue work
started. Long afterward. men and
women, trapped beneath piles of
wreckage and bodies could be heard
moaning and crying Tor help. The in
Jured were placed in improvised
stretchers and hoisted gu. of the tun-
mel as rapidly as possible. The living
climbed out by means of ladders. The
work OF removing corpses was still in
progress this morning. Some were so
mangled that Identification was con-
sidered impossible.
All night an anxious crowd stood In
the streets near the scene, held back
by police lines. Many of those in the
crowd were searching for members of
their families who had failed to get
home. and who. 1t was declared, were
lying in the debris.
Every available ambulance in
Brooklyn was pressed into use, and
after the injured had all been taken
away. the wagons were used to remove
the dead.
Use Ball Diamond.
Ebbett's baseball field, nearby, was
thro xn open and used as a first aid
dressing station.
Persons who had had narrow es-
capes in the wreck. some Of them with
torn clothes, wandered about the
scene for hours. Some were hys-
terica1, others seemed d;-zed and some
told Stories of narrow escapes and of
seeing friends killed before their eyes,
Mayor Hylan. Police Commissioner
Enright and other city and borough
officials participated In the investiga-
ton begun today.
Unofficial opinion was that the
wreck was due to the employment of
a -reen hand to operate the train.
Motorran Lewis admitted he had
II, T.
operating except switching in the
yards.
Survivors attributed the accident to
the speed at which the train was run
ming when it jumped the track. Some
estimate the speed at from sixty to
seventy miles an hour