New-York tribune., 1922-10-06
20 Hurt, Man
Killed When
Train Hits Auto
Rockaway Express, Laden
With Rush-Hoar Crowd,
Plu- 4ges Into Truck ON
Crossing in Brooklyn
Second Man Mortal yHur,
Passengers Are Cut by
Splinters of Glass; Gate
Tender Held by Police

An eastbound Rockaway express,
burdened with rush-hour crowd, de-
molished furniture truck az Eldert
Lane and Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn,
about 6:2o p. M. yesterday, killing
John Adono, sixteen years old, of ATT
Crescent Street, Brooklyn, who was
driving the wagon, and fatally injuring
his father. Pietro.
More than twenty passengers were
cut by window glass shattered by frag-
ments of the wagon which were hurled
against the cars, or bruised by being
thrown to the aisles. Five were treated
BY ambulance surgeons.
The train struck the wagon with tre-
mendous force squareiy at the seat.
Adono and his son were flung through
the heavy glass in the front Of the
Arst car, one striking against the door
on one side of the vestibGle and one
against the door on the other side.
The impact tore the heavy steel doors
Yrom their rollers and sent them
crashing Co the car platform, while
the bodies Of the youth and his father
were projected into the aisle of the
car. The horse was thrown forty feet
70 the south of the tracks and killed.
The splintered wagon Uttered tbs
streets on the north side of the tracks
for a distance Of block or more.
Henry G. Smith, motorman of the
train, clamped on his brakes with \
force which made the train buckle and
Jolt. Passengers were thrown from
their seats, some of those In the fore
most car almost upon the bodies Of the
two men thrown from the wagon.
In the midst of the excitement, with
glass from broken windows still tink-
ling to the floor and the train rocking
like a ship in a heavy sea, a priest
coolly arose from his seat in the front
car and made his way down the aisle
toward the two cut and bruised bodies.
He knelt at their sides and admins
tered the last rites of the Church
while the men passengers, recovering
from their panic, removed their hats
and bowed their heads.
By the time the train had been
stopped, two blocks or more beyond
the scene Of the collision, and the po-
lice had taken charge the priest had
disappeared and no one could be found
who knew his name.
1t was found that the younger Adano
was takec to ST. Mary's Hospital.
Jamaica, where he succumbed.
After an investigation the police
arrested Gaetano Augeri Of 365 Sack
ett Street, Brooklyn, gate tender at
the crossing where the accident occur
red. He was locked up at the Miller
Avenue police station charged with
homicide.
He acknowledged, the police said, that
one gate on the north side of the
tracks, from which the furniture truck
was approaching, was raised, but said
he had raised it to permit a motor
cyclist to speed out of danger before
the express caught him.
Just before the accident, he said, he
had got the signal for train ap-
preaching from the west. He lowered
the gates and local thundered past.
Believing that to be the only train
then due, Augeri started to raise the
gates. As he did SO motorcyclist,
coming from the south side Of The
tracks, darted across them.
At the same moment Augeri caught
sight Of the express roaring down the
grade from the elevated structure on
which the tracks are carried west of
the crossing. He hastily lowered the
gates behind the motorcycle and one
Of those in front Of It.
The motorcycle cleared the tracks
ture truck came numbering beneath the
single raised gate in spite of Augeri's
frantic shouts and gestures.
Augeri has been employed as gate.
man by the railroad only since Sep
49, IA