THE HUDSON RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 371, 18 March 1871, Page 2

THE HUDSON RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

FEARFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT—A TRAIN BURNT UP — EIGHTEEN PERSONS KILLED. New Youk, February 7.—The train leaving New York at eight o'clock last evening met an oil train on the New Hamburgh drawbridge. The oil train jumped the track and broke in two, and an oil car tipped over on to the passenger train and set it on fire, and the iocomotive and cars and bridge were all burned up. Three sleeping cars are among those destroyed, and 18 persons were killed outright; many more are injured who will not recover. SECOND DISPATCH. Nkw IlAMuunGn, February 7—2 p.m.— Nineteen bodies have been recovered, fourteen of whom arc thought to be passengers, including three children and five employees of the railroad. The search will be Jcontinued although it was thought that all the bodies had been recovered. The following particulars : has been obtained from an eye-witness : | The freight train which caused the accident consisted of about twenty-five cars, most of which carried tanks of oil. Before leaving Albany every car was carefully inspected by the workmen, and no defect was discovered. When the train reached the wooden drawbridge over Wapeiiger Creek, New Hamburg, a sudden shock passed through the entire train, almost throwing it from the track. Upon examination it was found that the axle of the tenth car had been broken. The car had then broken loose from its coupling, and careened on one side, striking against the frame work of the bridge, and lay a total wreck upon the track. Almost at the same moment, and before a signal or note of warning could be raised, the express train which left this city at eight o'clock came rushing along at tho rate of thirty miles an hour. The engine struck the wrecked car with terrible force, setting fire to the oil, and scattering the inflammable materials and burning fragments in all directions. The force of the collision instantly threw the engine over tho bridge into the creek. The ice, though very thick, was unablo to bear the locomotive, which broke through and sank. The tender of the engine also fell into the creek, immediately behind the engine, with two baggage cars, ' which were instantly followed by a sleeping car full of passengers. The flames from the oil tank set

fire to these cars-which after striking the wreck fell over into the creek a burning mass. J-t is said that some passengers in the burning cai succeeded in leaping out in time to save themselves from death, but the re-fc were carried with the car over the bridge, and were either drowned or burned. . From the appearance of the bodies it is evident that the passengers at the time of the accident had rushed in despair to the rear door, and there miserably perished. Three bodies, apparantly those of a mother and her two children, of which the arms yet remained, were discovered closely embracing each other, as though finding egress impossible, they had resolved at least to die together. Besides the car, which was the Buffalo car, there was two other sleeping cars, which were also totally destroyed by fire; but the passengers many of whom were partly dressed, succeeded in saving their lives. Many of the cars of the freight train, together with the baggage they contained, were also burned. The explosion of the oil in the tank was heard at a great distance, and the flames from the wrecked cars and burning bridge were seen many miles away. The bridge was a wooden one, about 200 feet long, and was totally destroyed. Many of the oldest conductors and engineers on the Hudson River road unite in saying that tho scene presented at the place of the disaster, this morning, was the most terrible ever witnessed. "THE RAILWAY HORROR,-FURTHER PARTICULARS.—EXCITING INCIDENTS. The Now York papers of February Bth are filled with details of the railroad catastrophe on tho Hudson River railroad. From the Tribune we give the following : — THE WLRECK. RECOVERING THE BODIES. The daylight revealed a fearful mass of smoking and blackened ruins at the bridge, and people from the neighborhood, from Poughkeepsie, and New York, flocked thither to seek friends, to recover the bodies, and to witness the terrible spectacle. The first body was not recovered until 9 o'clock a.m. A baggage car near the bridge was used as a temporary morgue, in which the bodies were placed as they were drawn out of the water. The dead forms were brought up rapidly, and, as each was seen, exclamations of horror were heard on every side. They were mutilated in many ways, and the sight was a sickening one. Simmons, the engineer, was found on his engine below the river surface, with both legs burned off and his head smashed in. One woman was brought to the surface with a babe in each of her arms. Upon the ice near the wreck a body was found with the entrails torn out, and the head and legs crushed. It has not been identified up to this date. SCENES AND INCIDENTS. The scene at the time the accident occurred is described as awful in the extreme. The burning oil from the overturned oil-car ran in fiery streams down the timbers of the bridge upon the ice in the river, where it flooded the glassy surface for a long way, looking like a sea of fire. Near the burning bridge stood tho two sleeping-coaches, all one sheet of flame, roaring and cracking. Men stood apalled at Uie sight. A few more heroic than the rest, made repeated dashes at the doors and windows of the firsts car, in hopes to save even one life, but the (lames drove them back before they could get within ten feet of the car. Suddenly the bridge fell with a crash, the car with it, and then a column of flame, sparks,and smoke shot high in the air. Darkness followed, the smouldering ruins only showing the spot where so many had met with their deaths. Rescue was then impossible. All who were in the car when the bridge fell were either, burned to death or buried far down undei broken baggage and express cars. STATEMENTS OP SUItVIVOES. The fireman of the passenger train, wh< saved his life by jumping from the engine be fore it struck the oil-car, was severely injured about the head, having been struck by soiuff sharp substance when he fell. His story i substantially as follows :—I was on the Con stitution (Engine No. 54), which was attache, to the Second Pacific Express train, that left New York at 8 o'clock on Monday evening The train was composed of eight cars, in* eluding five sleeping aad two baggage! cars. The first of the sleeping cars was called the Buffalo Sleeper, and had about 35 or 4<Q persons inside. We reached New Hamburg at about 10.20, somewhat behind time.; When approaching the drawbridge at that place an engine was observed upon the track, but it excited no surprise, nor did it lessen the speed of our train, as it was usual for locomotives to stop at this place and take in water from a tank. We saw danger signals flashing through the darkness. Our train shot by the locomotive and a portion of an oil train that was behind it near the bridge, and went crashing through the rear of it. Simultaneously with the collision arose a blaze from the.scattered oil that had ignited, and soon everything was enveloped .in flames. Prior to the collision I saw that the accident was inevitable, and before the train reached the bridge I jumped from it and landed on some ice. For half a minute or so I was conscious and heard tho shattering of timbers, the descent of the locomotive and other cars over the draw into tho water, the blaze flashed upon me, and then camo a stupor, from which I was aroused by the pain of the injuries I had received. Upon recovering my senses I discovered than the cars composing the train, the locomotive, baggage and two sleeping cars, had been precipitated into the water, and, with a few exceptions, all on board with them. lam almost certain that none escaped from the Buffalo Sleeper, not even tho brakemen. The throe other sleeping ears were not injured, as the coupling broke and left them on the ground with very frightened but uninjured passengers. I do not know the cause of the accident, nor do I know who is at fault. I heard that the accident was caused by the breaking of the axle of the engine attached to the oil train, which had torn and otherwise injured the bridge in crossing. I don't know how far wo were from the oil train when wo perceived it; but when we heard tho danger signals we tried to stop. The engineer of our train was Edward Simmons, generally known as " Doc." I did not hear that anyone was killed on the oil train. After the accident tho uninjured ears were removed from the scene of danger, and the passengers clustered in them for shelter and remained all night. The bridge was built about a year ago. The telegraph wire was under the bridge, and when the bridge was burning could not be used, so that communication was kept open to Fishkill all night by means of an engine.