Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-25
CARS SMASHED
AND MOTORMAN
FATALLY HURT
]. VI. Peck Dies Three Hours After
Three Tr0iIeys Came Together
On Davenport Corner.

JIM Peck, Tri-City Railway mo-
torman, died at 10 o'clock this
morning at Mercy hospital. Dav-
export, as a result of Injuries he
received in the wreck of three
cars at Third and Brady streets,
one Of which he was operating.
The street cars piled up in a
spectacular wreck when an ar
senal car and trailer slid six blocks
down Brady street hill and smash
ed into the front end of a Locust
street car just rounding the curve
from Third to Brady.
J. NJ. Peck, 1911 East Locust
street, motorman of the Locust
street car, received fatal in
juries when all the vestibule above
the floor. of his car, was knocked
completely from the main BODY.
He died three hours later. The
two conductors and motorman on
the arsenal train, and the conduc-
tor on the Locust car received only
a severe shaking up. There were
no passengers on either car, with
the exception of a newsboy on the
Locust and one on the arsenal car.
Peck was taken to Mercy hospital.
A wrecking crew was put TO
work on the debris and within two
hours lad rushed the crippled
hulks into the barns for repairs.
BY 10 o'clock the Third and Brady
intersection was cleared and open
to street car trafhce again.
Nobody Blamed
mo one can possibly be blamed
for the accident" said Frank
Sicily. superintendent of the Tri-
City Railway company, this morn
ing. The two cars under power
were in perfect working condition,
and as the arsenal cars slid down
the hill the wheels were spinning
at high speed in the opposite direc-
ton much of the time, while the
brakes of the trailer were locked"
The Locust street car played the
part Of the innocent bystander.
The rails we're slippery with fallen
leaves and moisture from the rain
during the night and from the.
damp atmosphere.
The two cars composing the ar
senaI trains left the barn a few
minutes before Z o'clock and going
west on Third street, turned up
Brady. All went well until the
car reached Ninth street. At lb )It
that point the forward progress
OF the stars stopped. Then the
train slowly began moving back
wards. The motorman alternately
increased the power slowly until
the car wheels were spinning for
ward, and shut of the power and
clamped the wheels with the brakes
The trailer's/ brakes were set. All
this was unavailing. The cars
quickly gathered speed until at the
end of four blocks it was travelling
with great velocity.
Hits Like ThunderbOlt.
Like a thunderbolt it tore down
the last two blocks of the slope
The Locust street car in the mean
time had baen coming up Third
street from the east. Just at the
crucial moment it came around the
turn onto Brady. The motornaan
saw his danger too late to escape.
Then, with a rending crash and the
sound of heavy steel and wood
meeting and destroying each other,
the three cars came together. TheyA
were all thrown off the track and
all the cars sustained much dam
age. The damage is estimated at
$40 900.
That the accident occurred so
early in the morning that trafhc
on the cars and on the street as
we'll had not yet become dense, is
considered a fortunate feature of
fba wrapE