The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-08-14

I the buckling rallS. Ine next car, | chair car, Market Street" also hurtled the collapsing bridge and ended on its side 200 feet on the other side. The next six coaches | ripped through the side of the bridge and into the river, landing 1 one on top of another in mass of twisted and tangled steel.
 The buffet and dining car was | on the bottom of the heap and was smashed. In 1t most of the deaths l occurred. So far as could be deter mined, every person in 1t was either killed or injured.
 Dead Not All Recovered
 The wreckage was such that not all the dead had been recovered "A hours after the wreck. In these cars passengers had been playing bridge or poker with tall cool drinks at their elbows. They were called the "Presidio," Mission Dolores" "Embarcadero," Irwin Peaks" Chinatown" and "Fishermans Wharf," all famous places in San Francisco.
 Evary car was darkened immed- lately by the broken main electric cable running between the auxiliary power unit and the remainder of the train. Some of the passengers broke through windows and leaped to the roadbed. But the majority rode the cars in their 150 foot drop into the riverbed
 One. who leaped was J. A. Jones, San Francisco motor dealer, who said today in Elko hospital where he was treated for painful injuries: ''The lights went out suddenly while I was playing cards in the club car. At once I knew we were in for a crash and without a thought I jumped up and dived through the window"
 Not Yet Recovered
 Other fortunate passengers and attendants of the six cars who es- capped with their lives were not suf- flciently recovered today to describe their experiences. That remained the principal task of those in the next three coaches, the Golden Gate" Seal Rocks" and Union Square,. which tumbled off the tracks and rutted their forward ends into the sheer rock cliff ad. jacent the right-of-
 The three cars behind these, last on the train-"Telegraph Hill" Portsmouth Square" and Mob Hill" remained on the track and, hours later, became hospital train that carried some of the less seri- ously injured west to hospitals at Elko.
 Two Persons Stand Out
 Two persons stood out for their work in aiding and comforting the injured They were Dr. P. c. Brig ham, Boston, the only physician who was a passenger, and Stewardess Thelma Ristvedt.
 Miss Ristvedt was only slightly bruised. A nurse she administered first aid. Of her work, Harry Charles, train barber, said:
 "She ran about attending the in- jured and offering comforting words, binding wounds, bandaging mangled legs and arms, sometimes applying splints or fractures with not a thought to her own painful bruises. She keeled over finally at the edge of the water while she was working over one of the injured who had managed to pull himself from the wreckage. I pulled her away from the water"
 Brigham, chief of staff at the Deaconess hospital, Boston, smash ed his way out of the wreckage of his car. Using a flashlight he ran among the wrecked cars smashing windows to release entrapped pas- sengers, and waded into the stream to help them out. He applied tour niquets by the score, using strips torn from Pullman sheets.
 Day to Repair Damage
 Southern Pacific officials said it would require at least a full day to replace the torn trackage. The line is the main thoroughfare between the lines Denver and San Fran cisco terminals. More than week would be required, they said, to hoist the wrecked cars and clean up the scene.
 Hundreds of souvenir hunters be- gan a mass movement to the scene. The crowds were moved back last r.idnight by state police who threw a rope barrier about the entire scene.
 Col. Charles Sexton, chairman of the Nevada public service commits sion, which corresponds to the state railroad commission, arrived at the scene and said the commission would hold an investigation "if necessary" after the railroad completed its in- quiry.
 The train was operated jointly by the Southern Pacific, the Union Pacific, and the Chicago, Northwest ern, and Pacific. Its operating time between Chicago and San Francisco was 39 hours. At the time of the wreck, it was using the tracks of the Southern Pacific.
 TRAIN WRECK DEAD
 Carlin, Nev., Aug. 14-(UP)-The train wreck dead:
 Milton Borta, dining car cook, ad- dress unknown.
 Burl Bowers, Pullman porter, Oak