Railway Horror
Railway Horror.
Fatal Wreck in a Tunnel in New York City.
The Death-Roll Numbers Eight
And the Fate of Seven Was Peculiarly Horrible--Two Women Among the Victims, One Terribly Burned After Death--One Unfortunate Cut in Two A Mine Explosion in Nova Scotia Results in the Loss of Over One Hundred Lives.
New York, Feb. 21.--An appalling disaster occurred shortly after 7 o'clock yesterday morning in the Fourth avenue tunnel near Eighty fifth street, in which two women and four men met their death, and several other persons were seriously injured. All were employees of the New York, New Haven and Hartford railway. The accident was caused by the New Haven accommodation train, which left the Grand Central station at 7:01, crashing into the shop train, the rear car of which was filled with car-cleaners and other employees bound for the railroad shops at Mott Haven, and which had left the station five minutes ahead of the New Haven train. The tunnel was filled with a dense fog, owing to which the engineer of the shop train ran under slow headway. In the meantime the New Haven local was speeding along in the rear.
Agonized Cries of the Victims.
The engineer of the local was unconscious of any danger ahead until when within twenty feet of the shop train he saw its red lights and at once applied the brakes, but it was too late. The engine had already crashed into the hind end and had telescoped the car containing the unfortunate employees on their way to work. The scene that followed beggars description. Men and women screamed for help and there were moans from the dying. The passengers on the New Haven, none of whom was injured, rushed pell-mell over each other in the dark tunnel, panic-stricken. Following the crash, flames burst from the wreck and clouds of smoke rolled up through the air vent in the tunnel that was almost directly over the scene of the accident. Fearful cries for help were heard by those who were passing in the street overhead.
A Woman's Frightful Fate.
In the meantime firemen had swarmed down into the tunnel and had began their work of subduing the flames and rescuing the injured. One of the women car cleaners had been struck by the engine and her condition was sufficient evidence to believe that she had been killed instantly. The lamp in the car had exploded and scattered flaming oil over her clothes and besides being horribly mutilated, her head and body were terribly burned. Out of a broken window of the wrecked car where the engine of the local had pinned him fast, hung John Haucke, a car cleaner, crying for help. The firemen as tenderly as possible tried to pull him out, but the efforts caused him such intense pain that he begged to be left where was. When he was gotten out it was found that his legs had been partially burned off. He died on the way to the hospital.
The List of Unfortunates.
The following is a correct list of the dead and injured: Dead--John Haucke, Michael Mullane (aged 15), Mrs. Nellie Supple, Mrs. Ellen Fay, John Murray, aged 49, all of this city, and an unknown colored man. Injured--William F. Brown, a brakeman, injured internally; M. M. Culbreth, colored cook, suffering from shock; Engineer Fowler and Brakeman Linn, slightly hurt.