FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN MONTREAL.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9433, 1 May 1909, Page 2

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN MONTREAL.

' Ottawa, March 17. It would be difficult to find in the • annals of railway transporta non a 1 more extraordinary acoineot than . that which happened to the Boston express in Montreal shortly atter 8 o’clock this morbing,' The through ■: train from Boston to Montreal leaves ; Boston at 8,30 each night and travels ■over the Boston and Maine Railway. .-•At Newport, Vermont, the train is ; taken in charge by the Canadian Pacific Company! This morning, at a time when the Windsor Station _ at ; Montreal was crowded with Inooming ’ and outgoing passengers and friends, the express dashed into the station at , 40 miles an hour. It ploughed its i, way over stone platforms and * ithrough stone walls into the ladies waiting room and the general waiting rooms,' carrying death and destruction with it. _ The noise of the collision was heard a long distance off. Ifc Bh °°J v the ground to such an extent that the guests in the Windsor Hotel, 350 yards away, thought that an ea • , quake had occurred. The a° old ®“* . was unquestionably due to the faot that the boiler plug of the .engine .. was blown out at Kensington, two : miles west of the city. The dnve .i and the fireman were thrown out or the cab, and no one was lext on tue . engine to check the speed of the train. , Mr David MoNicoll, the general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, was quickly on - the spot, and,, realising the possibility of danger from falling masonry, promptly gave orders to clear the station. All the police reserves were oallad out, and a space round the building was roped off. The engine in its mad dash into the station carried away a large granite pillar supporting the superstructure. Orders were therefore immediately issued to the clerks in this portion.of the station to leave their offices. , Rescue parties were quickly organised, and the work of removing the wounded from the wrecked building was carried on with despatch, but at imminent risk to the rescuers. Considering the remarkable character of the accident, it is astonishing that the loss of life was not greater, None of the passengers in the train was injured, although several were badly shaken. Cunningham, the engine driver, was fatally injured ; Craig, the fireman, has not been found. Up to 2 o’clock five bodies bad been recovered from the debris in the station, including those of Mrs Nixon, of Montreal, her son, and a daughter, aged 13. The father, a train despatcher, was a passenger 1 in the Boston train, and his family , had gone to the station to meet him. Elsie Vilhers, a little girl aged seven, strayed away from her grandmother’s side in the , waiting room /*and was buried under tons of masonry. The grandmother escaped unhurt. The body of an unknown man was also recovered. As far as is known over 20 persons were ini jnred. Fifteen were taken to the ii- hospitals and the others were sent to ? their homes. Ottawa, March 18. Cunningham, the engineer of the Boston express which crashed into Windsor ( ;Station, Montreal, died in the General Hospital this morning. -He never regained consciousness. Oraig, the fireman, is in the hospital. He says that whan the cab of the engine filled with steam he jumped from the window to escape being scalded to death. Cunningham stuck to his post for half a mile, but whether he fell out or jumped out will never be known. He was found lying unconscious beside the line with a fractured skull. The official report issued by Mr MoNicoll, the general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, says that the accident was due to the blowing out of what is known as the “wash- . out plug” of the engine. The accident might have been much worse had not one of the!jtrain crew, realising that something was wrong, applied the emergency brakes, which slowed the train down to some extent. *