Norwich bulletin., 1918-11-02

1 1NGW IOIh, -NON. l.-MOTS lHd1l 1uu l bodies had been removed late tonight
 from what is known as the Malone
 street tunnel on the Brighton Beach | line of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit | company, where a five-car train run | ming at high speed jumped the track 1 1 on curve and struck the sideWall | with such terrific force that the first | car was demolished and the others
 ''buczled' until they were damned | against the roof of the tunnel. The l train, which carried nearly 900 pas sengers, was in charge of a green motorman.
 The tragedy marked the first day
 of strike called by the company's motormen to enforce the reinstatement of 29 discharged members of the | Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
 as ordered by the National War Labor Board. Officials of the company professed
 three hours after the accident to have
 no definite information as to it's cause.
 They said no reports had been made
 to them by members of the train
 Grew.
 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 had been ordered
 Tlaced under arrest. He asserted the
 company was withholding the name of the motorman. It was reported, how ever, that the man in charge of the
 train ofrmerly was employed as d train dispatcher.
 Immediately after the crash the
 VI ecked cars burst into flame, adding
 to the terror of those who had es- capped injury and increasing the peril of those pinned in the wreckage. Police reserves from T dozen sta
 tions were rushed to the scene of the accident and they immediately sent ill
 calls for all the amDulanceS in Brook lyn while Manhattan hospitals were
 asked for assistance. The fire depart ment also was called upon to aid the injured and remove the dead.
 Rescue work was retarded by thl
 fact that the crash occurred in q deep !, cut. It was difficult for relief work \ CTS. or survivors to chamber up and r down the steep concrete walls of what . is known as the Malone Street "tun- ? nel."
 }. The injured and dead were carried I up ladders taken from fire apparatus. e Charred bodies were placed in Duridp
 ll3ags to shroud them from the gaze of s the thousands of persons who gathered u N-iti2in a few minutes after the col
 FIlsion. Policemen and fremen were e literally mobbed by frenzied men and
 women who feared the burdens they e carried might be members of their : families. n Hundreds of reserves formed a cor Q don around the tunnel and kept 4 Lack the great throng from the long
 line of ambulances which came clang- S ing from every direction. More than n 1U0 members of the Womens Motor n Corps of America responded with their r cars to the calls for help. All kinds
 of vehicles were pressed into service o to carry the dead and injured to hos IT pltalS and morgu 2.
 a Rescue workers declared taey be- y lieved more bodies were buried under r. the wreclage and that the death list e of men, women and children might
 reach 120. Probably twice tna; many 1t were injured, many of them seriously ,f District Attorney Lewis of Kings ,f County declared the accident was due
 to recklessness on the part of the mo- ,f torman who had been employed as a J. train dispatcher and was pressed into al service because of the strike which q. went into effect today after the com
 nlny had refused to reinState 29 uIs- ot charged union employees. It The motorman is gone" MT. Lewls )r said The claim adjusting depart
 ment appears to have kidnapped him.
 Police Commissioner Enright echoed
 the assertion of MI. Lewis.
 The accident appears to have oeer D the result of a green motOrman run > f0ing his train at an excessive rate o1 s- speed The police now are searching SC tor this man.
 g. Mir Lewis said warrants would be T. issued for the arrest of all officials o1 )n the corporation who could be held re 9, sponsible for the disaster An inves' le tigation of the wreck was in progress L. late tonight at the office of the public
 service commission. The Brooklyn e. Rapid Transit had made no statemen e. concerning the wreck and four hour; e. after it happened ignorance was pro to fessed of exactly what had happened ee The wrecked train was packed to the of gates with home-going men. womeI ,f and children. Service on the com
 ib2nys lines was materially reduced so because of the strike and every trail h. which left the Brooklyn Bridge wa; o. literally jammed by the thousands o D. delayed residents of Brooklyn who al 70 most fought to get aboard.
 1d Hours after the accident it was diff
 ficult to determine exactly how i
 happened. The crash came in a darl
 tunnel and the hystericaI surv1vor
 were unable to give coherent ac 5 count of their experiences. Many 0
 
 en ploughed into the rear of the on h. which had carried them and this wa ve the theory of District Attorney Levi a. until he had carefully sifted the evi A dence at his command. He finally de 0n termined, however. that only one trail al was involved.
 he Mr. Lewis and the police asserte
 that the train was running fully fort, el miles an hour when it took the cdrV al end plunged into the concrete sid f.. wall of the tunnel It was difficult fo ed Etrem to believe at first. they said, tha st there could have been such heav, is. loss of life unless two trains had beel is, involved The tunnel was compete e. only recently and it was declared tha
 Cnly a mzorman thoroughly familia
 with the line could have negotiate
 the curve safely even at moderat
 speed. ip When the first car jumped the trac nd il sideswiped the west wall and ra O. along the ties for nearly ore hundre E. feet. The cars behind crashe mt trough it, then buclled against tn of rocf and fell.
 a. The gloomy tunnel was quickly con np Verted into d shambles. The wrecKag 50, burst into flames. increasing the in ee describable panic among the passen as gers Almost every passenger in tn al first ear was killed or desperately in as iured Many of those unable to dra np themselves free of the wreCkage ar it believed to have been burned to deati
 xRlozns of the bodies rAnoved wer