The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-03
8 DIE In WRECK
Wrong Switch at Winslow
Junction, N. j., Causes Derail.
Engine, 2 Pullmans and 8
Coaches Into 5O-FOot Cut.
IL INJURED, 81 SERIOUSLY
Twelve Passengers Were Not
Accounted for Early Today.
SignaIman Said to Have Set
the Wrong Track for Flyer.
72 INJURED, 81 SERIOUSLY
(By international News Service J

Winslow Junction, N. j., July "a
revised casualty list this afternoon put
the number of dead in the wreck on
the Philadelphia & Reading roads
Midnight Flyer at nine. Some of the
|seventy-two injured are so badly hurt
it is feared they will die.
Six of the dead have been identi-
fled. The Identification of another
man was believed possible from cards
in his pockets.
The 6s-year-old sfgnalman in
charge of the tower at Winslow juno
tion, who is alleged to have been re-
sponsible for the wreck by throwing
the train into an open switch on the
Cape May branch, has been arrested,
charged with manslaughter and taken
to Camden.
Following the wreck he fled to his
home in nlmonton, frantic with
fear and remorse. He talked cease
lessly of the disaster, saying over and
over again that the cries of the in
jured were ringing in his ears.
81 Injured May Die.
Thirty-seven of the injured are in a
serious condition, according to Ser
geant Campbell. Ten are children and
sixteen are women. More than forty
were taken to Atlantic City. Others
were removed to Cooper hospital in
Camden.
o'clock said twelve passengers were
still unaccounted for.
Relief workers said some or all of
them might be in the wreckage. altho
they hoped the missing ones had
escaped and made their way from the
scene of the disaster.
One OF the dead was taken to At
lantic City. Two were still here at s
o'clock and three had been taken to
Camden.
rr1ryz r,1,, not Sariorr11, {1f,,~a5 a~z
in Cooper hospital. They are ]. K.
Miller, of Lebanon, Pa, dental stu
dent at the University of Pennsyl-
vania, and Roy Copeland, of Phila-
delphia.
An investigation to fix responsibility
is already under way. John D. Wall,
the -signalman, is reported to have
sent a dispatch to Atlantic City say
ing: a,
SignaIman To Blame?
my God. I have sent s3 on the
wrong track"
The Atlantic City dispatcher is said
to have tried to call back to Wall, but
got no response. Wall has not been
located.
1t is believed the switch had been
set by mistake for a freight train
which was to have taken siding a
quarter down the track to allow the
flyer to pass. This freight was to
have gone on the Cape May branch
line.
Engineer Wescott was driving his
train at the highest rate of speed
early today when he swerved from the
straight line to the curved Cape May
branch.
When the flyer hit the curve the
but too late.
The coaches held to the rails until
the locomotive plunged down the en-
bankment.
the train plunged over the embank-
ment, one of the parlor cars was the
first to strike the ground. altho it had
been behind the locomotive on the
brink. The locomotive crashed down
on top of this car.
Engineer Among Killed.
The accident was caused by the inn
proper setting of switch. It threw
the flyer onto a curve leading into a
branch line. At the time the engf-
neer was driving his train at terrific
speed, expecting to continue along a
line of track. -....--
The train left the rails and plowed
along sixty feet of ground to the 30
foot cut of the Pennsylvania railroads
Cape May branch. The midnight flyer
was composed of two Pullmans and
four day coaches. The engine, the
two PuIlmans and three day coaches
went into the cut, which is fifty feet
wide. Walter Westcott of Gloucester,
n. J., engineer of the train. was
the killed.
Philadelphia. July 3.-A statement
was issued today by the PhiladeIpIlil
& Reading railroad on the wreck at
Winslow Junction. 1t said. in part:
The Atlantic City railroad train
No 33 leaving Camden for Atlantic
City at 10:40 O'Clock Sunday night was
derailed at the interiocking plant at
WinsIow Junction about 1880 p. III.
AT Winslow Junction, the Cape
May branch of the Atlantic City rail-
road diverges from the main. The
switches are. controlled by an inter
icck.Eg plant IN charge of John A.
DeWalt. an experienced operator. He
had set the switches for the move
ment to the Cape May branch, SEEM
ingly in the belief that a train of
empty passenger coaches which had
previously passed, was train No. 49,
These signals as displayed apparently
We're not observed by the enginarnaT
OF train No. 33, who took the tunc-
ttcn switch at full speed. This caused
the dora