Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-27
-Four Dead as Train
Hits CrOlUded Bus
Continued from Page One

Continued from Page One
Green. The driver made a last desper
ate effort to stop the bus, and then
swerved directly to the right.
Men shouted hoarsely. Women
screamed and tainted. The big bus
skidded and then smashed head on into
an iron warning post.
The impact was terrific. Men and
women were hurled from their seats,
through the windows, or piled up in
tangled mass on the floor of the bus.
As it struck the danger post the
notorious careened and then turned over
on its left side.
Hurled Under Train Wheels
The covered top smashed into the
side of the first passenger coach. The
frame cover was shattered and several
OF the passengers, including Miss Hack
ney, were catapulted through the top
and under the wheels of the train
The engineer of the train did not
see the bus until he was right on it.
He threw on the airbrake, but could
not bring the train to halt until the
last coach had passed the crossing
The scene which followed is indie
strewn along the track for "A distance
Of several hundred feet. The shrieks
of the women mingled with groans of
the dying.
Panic seized most of the passengers.
lammed under the wreckage of the
demolished bus.
Train Passengers Aid
Those that had not been seriously in.
jured fought their way out of the
broken windows of the wreckage. AS
soon as possible passengers from the
Hog Island train returned to aid in ex
Treating the dead and dying.
An emergency call was Immediately
dispatched to surrounding hospitals and
police stations and ambulances were
rushed to the scene from the Univer-
sity, Presbyterian. Misericordia and
other hospitals, together with patrols
from the Sixty fifth street and Wood
land avenue station and the Thirty
second and Woodland avenue station.
Surgeons from the dispensary at the
Atlantic Refining Co.'S plant were
among the first on the scene.
The four persons who had been
thrown under the train were dead when
physicians arrived
Surgeons gave first aid to the injured
and they were taken in patrols and
ambulances to the hospitals.
A sweeping investigation as to re
sponsibiity for the accident has been
eldTltu ny Tue pOllNP duu Tue coroner )
Office, together with officials of the
Reading Railway.
Coroner Visits Scene
Coroner Knight visited the scene and
viewed the wreCkage.
After examining several eycwit-
nesses, including the fagman at the
crossing and the engineer of the train,
the coroner said the accident was. ap
parently due To the CarelPsSneSS and
negligence of Green. the driver of the
autobus.
There have been many accidents
in that section Of the city, he said,
lever since the large industrial plants
were built. This thing must stop. There
have been too many instances where
trucks, loaded with human freight have
figured in smash ups with trains.
~ am going to get in touch with the
industrial plants employing the workers
who ride in these jitney buses and
trucks. | will wait until the inquest
develops the full circumstances sur
rounding the tragedy. and then take
immediate action.
1T was the most horrible sight have
ever witnessed said Arthur Townsend,
of 5S06 Washington avenue, who was
on the i'll fated truck
The front end of the truck was shat.
tered into a thousand pieces The >ids
was crushed in. The passengers were
piled up in u narrowing mass under
the debris.
Il saw one woman hurled clear over
the Windshield and under The wheels
Of the tram. did not know the woman
Her legs were cut off
We were coming down Sixty. third
street Mt about twenty or twenty five
miles an hour, when, A. the truck was
ing, one Of the women saw the train
coming southwcStWard
My God, its going to hit US &"
the woman shouted. (irr"u saw the
danger and tried to save us lie swrrved
to the right. aiming for a safety pole,
IN an effort to keep from going in front
of the train.
''But the heavy truck. which had
gained unusual momentum on the steep
down grade, skidded.
'"Thc next instant the crash came.
The second coach sid"swipcd us. The
crash Of glass aud the twisting Of steel,
the Shrek Of the Iucumutivr and the
screams of the injured were mingled.
Although | escaped injury was
covered with the blood Of the others.
Ii was several minutes before ] could
get out from the tangled mass Of wound
ed aud the debris Of the truck.
Mother WeepS for joy
Mrs. James j Staplcton. @lG North
Fifty second street, mother of Ruth
Stapleton, wrpt for joy when she
learned this afternoon that her daugh
ter had not been killed Then She
folded her cdreworu hands aud bowed
her head in prayer.
"Havc you heard what happened to
RUTH was the first question the
mother asked OF reporters, when they
told her of the accident. She had
heard that many We're killed
Thank God, she exclaimed when
they said the daughter was not seri
ously hurt, at st. Agnes Hospital.
She then hurried into the house to
tell the invalid father of Ruth that
the latter had been spared.
The daughter is sixteen years old.
When her father became an invalid more
than "a year ago the mere slip of girl
took his place as the family, bread
winner,
She had just finished her work at the