New-York tribune., 1921-05-31
Three Crowded Cars Hang
Over Street ON Third
Avenue at 140th Street
After 2 Are Telescoped
Tender of Ruined
Tower Is Missing
~ %aA Sss
TheaterThrong Showered
With Debris; Electric
Current In1perils Many


train jumped the rails near the l49th
Street station in the Bronx earlv last
evening, wrecked itself and part of the
elevated structure and caught fire,
More than twenty persons were injured
and an employee of the road Is missing,
His last name is Broderick. He was
q towerman in a signal tower which
was demolished by the wild train.
Victims Sent to Hospital
The following we're taken to Lincoln
Hospitals:
Hirsch Margolis, fifty years old, 485
East 172d Street, the Bronx; possible
internal injuries, decorations of the
scalp and face and bruises.
Rebecca Margolis, forty-eight years
old, wife of Hirsch; possible fracture
of the left leg and shock.
lsidore Spotland. twenty-eight years
old, SS8 Fox Street, the Bronx; shock.
Others injured were:
Wolf Spetzall, fifty-fve years old
S66 East 169th Street; cuts and bruises
and possible fracture of the left leg.
John O'Connor, twenty-eight years
old, 424 East 174th Street. the Bronx,
decorations of the scalp, cuts and
bruises.
James Tallman, thirty-two years old,
465 Forty-siXth Street, Brooklyn, cuts
and bruises.
Patrolman Edward Donohue of the
Beach Street police station, cuts and
burns.
James Dermody, 1922 East 17Sd Street,
the Bronx, conductor OF the train, cuts
and bruises.
Elias Berus, forty-nine years old,
1887 Washington Avenue, the Bronx,
abrasions of the right hand
John Pitscher, thrty-six years old,
1864 Franklin avenue, the Bronx, abra-
sions of the right leg.
Harry Setety, thirty years old, 18
Sutter Place, Brooklyn, abrasions of
the right hand.
The train was in charge Of Motor
man William H. Murphy, 1852 White
Plains Avenue, the Bronx. Murphy
stuck to his post in his BOOTH but was
unable to control the car.
Accident Is Mystery
Neither Murphy nor any of the other
trainmen could explain the accident.
The first car jumped a switch at West
chester Avenue leading to spur used
only for the storage of empty cars at
night. The second car was pulled from
the rails, but continued straight ahead
on the Third Avenue structure along the
ties until it struck the signal tower.
The switch which the first car jumped
| is operated from the signal tower.
-
cars, all made of wood. 1t was crowded
with home going holiday makers and is
said to have carried more than 400
passengers.
Within 100 feet of the 149th Street
station, transfer point for the sub
way and the busiest section of the
Bronx. the two forward cars left the
rails The coupling between the first
and second cars parted and the second,
with the weight of the train driving it
OIL, crashed into the signal tower,
wrecking it completely and showering
passersby in the street below with the
debris.
The force of the impact with the
tower drove the third car into the sec
ond, telescoping it for half its length
and sloughing it around SO that both
cars burst through the railing beside
the tracks and overhung the sidewalk.
The first car bumped along the ties
for almost 100 feet and then careened
against the railing, which sagged and
gave way beneath the weight, cantine
this car also over the sidewalk in front
of Keith's Royal Theater, where a
crowd waiting their turn "a the box
office broke and rar.
Patrolman Edward Donohue, of the
Beach Street police station, was one of
the seventy passengers in the second
car. The force of the collision flung
him half out of an open window and
he found himself dangling over the
sidewalk twenty-five feet below.
Policeman Sends III Alarm
The patrolman was cut by broken
glass, and flames already were licking
up the side of the car below his win
COW sill. Nevertheless, he managed to
wriggle free of the window and swung
down through the flames to the twisted
guard rail paralleling the tracks.
Grasping this, he lowered himself to a
pillar of the structure and half fell,
|cnnfinued an nane slnht\