Railway Disaster in America.

Hastings Standard, Issue 149, 19 October 1896, Page 4

Railway Disaster in America.

A most appalling accident took place on July :»0 011 the Pennsylvania railroad, two miles from Atlantic City, when the Philadelphia and Reading express ran into and cut in two an excursion train. The latest details to hand show the catastrophe was one of exceptional magnitude, and involved in death no fewer than forty-three people, whilst over a hundred were severely injured. The collision occurred through the engine-driver of the Philadelphia and Reading express mi-staking the signals. The danger sign was up, hut the driver kept on and crashed at a speed of nearly a mile a minute into the excursion train, which was at the moment crossing the vails diagonally at a junction. The first car of the excursion train was shivered into atoms, and all its occupants killed instantaneously. The cars behind this were telescoped, three of them being overturned and hurled along down the embankment into a watery marsh below. In the ooze one car was quite submerged, and its human freight suffocated and drowned. The Philadelphia and Reading Engine left the track and dashed down The engine-driver stuck to his post and was killed, his body being borne by the shrieking engine into the mire below. From the wreck arose the cries and groans of the wounded and dying, and then occurred that fearful accompaniment of American rail-road accidents. Fire broke out, and the shattered cars were s< on wrapped in flames. The survivors stood dazed and helpless at the destruction that had been wrought and the fearful contortions of the dying. Soon, however, this inaction ceased, and help was telegraphed for to the Atlantic City, and relief trains brought fire-engines, doctors. and nurses, together with clergymen to perform the last rites of the victims. Before the fire-engines were able to subdue the flames the boiler of the Reading engine exploded, and the hot water and "steam scalded both injured and their rescuers. Meanwhile the work of rescue was proceeding >p cdilv. The broken timbers were carefully raised and the dead and injured removed. Their bodies were horribly mangled, and the most heartrending scenes occurred as the sur- ! vivo re sought the missing by the light jof bonfires. The clergymen did all they could to c nnfort the dying, while ; the doctors worked hard binding up ! wounds and operating on damaged ! lirnlw.

To ad! to the horror of the event, thieves camo on the .scone and began to rob the dead. Several of these ghouls were captured, and narrowly escaped lynching by the outraged people. Several of the injured are violently insane from the shock. Some terrible scer.es were witnessed. For the most part the, passengers were excursionists coining from small towns in New Jersey, and all night crowds of people waited for news at country stations. A signalman at the junction where the accident took place has been arrested pending the result of the investigation by the State authorities.