A QUARTETTE OF CALAMITIES. COLLISION IN PENNSYLVANIA.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 241, 11 February 1888, Page 8 (Supplement)

A QUARTETTE OF CALAMITIES. COLLISION IN PENNSYLVANIA.

Meadvillk (Pa.), December 31. — The details of the wreck which occurred on the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railway" five miles west of this ciby, this morning proves the disaster to have been the most horrible that has occurred in this vicinity. The trains were the through New York express from Chicago and a doubleheader west • bound freight train. Both trains were over two hours late, and tho express being entitled to the right of way was running without orders. Conductor Murray of the freight train,taking it for granted tiiat the express was in, pulled out) for Geneva. The two trains— the express running at forty-five and the freight afc fifteen miles an hour — met on a long I forest - hidden curve with a terrible [ crash. The engine of the express train and the first engine of the freight raised bodily in the air and stood on the furnace ends. The pilots pointed upward and the driving wheels were locked. Both [ engineers and firemen were pressed between the iron ruins. The sight was sickening, but was soon covered from view by blankets. The baggage car, express car, and smoker of the passenger train was completely wrecked. The baggage car y/as telescoped into tho smoker, splitting it open and sweeping every seat from the floor. The total number of passengers on the train was fifty-three, fifteen of whom were in the smoker. Five woie killed outright. All these were more or less injured, and William Stephenson, of Toledo,died shortly | after being taken from tho ruins. The [ crash was heard for a great distance, and ! soon the neighbourhood was aroused and people living in the vicinity came to the scene. The passcngerswho were not injured seemed dazed, and for a few minutes everybody stood speechless. The groans and cries that came from the ruin& soon brought them to a realisation of theterriblesituation, and in a short time a large force of men, were at work, systematically doing what they could. A portion of the mangled remains o Fireman Hume was taken from the wreck. The almost unrecognisable form presented a sickening sight, the limbs and lower part of the body having been ground to pulp. Hume's aged father had arrived, and his cries and groans when he gazed on the mangled body were heartrending. The body of Engineer Swan was exposed, bub it was so tightly wedged to the wreck thab no attempt was then made to move ife. A portion of the body of Engineer George and also the arm and shoulder of Fireman Irwin could be seen.

A Car on Fire. San Francisco, January 10.— A frightful accident, which will undoubtedly result in the loss of several lives,, occurred at 11 o'clock Tuesday nigh* to- fch& Los Angeles express train on the Southern Pacific Kailroad near Sumner, mi Kern county. When the train reached Sumner it was found that the last car on the train,, and which was occupied by emigrant passengers, was missing. The bellrope running 1 through the train was broken, but no alarm had been heard by either the engineer or fireman or by any of the other trainmen. On looking down the track a bright light was seen about three miles back, and it was at once discovered that it came? from tho missing car, which had in somd i way caught fire. The locomotive wa» immediately detached and run back to the scene of the fire at the highest posI sible speed. ' On its arriv.il a fearful sigjifc presented itself. The missing car had jumped the track, and after rolling down an embankment, a distance of eighty feet, had caught fire. It was tilled with emigrants, all of whom succeeded in getting; out before the flames reached thena. j Several passengers were mortally,, and/ a large number seriously injured.

Collision With a Tank House. Boston, January 10. — A frightful accident befell a Portland, Me., express train,, which left Boston at 1 o'clock this afternoon. The scene of disaster was near Haverhill Bridgo, which spans Merrimac Kiver between Bradford and Haverhill. As the express rounded a curve two cars left the rails and went crashing into the water tank house, demolishing it. In this house a number of section, hands were eating dinner. Johu-Q-'Brien* a retired merchant of Bradford,, was talking to the section hands and was killed, together with William TayloE,. one. of the labourers. The car that; crashed, iato the tank house knocked the foundation out, letting the heavy tank. down. upon, the car. It crushed through the top ot the car, doing fearful work within.. The next car behind telescoped the one ahead of it, adding to the havoc. The killed and wounded were mostly in these- two. cars. The cars behind these ran down, alongside the Georgetown train, barely escaping a collision with the engine of that train. The people in the smoker had. a fearful experience. One of the wheels on, the. forward trucks broke, and the car bumped against the end of the bridge,, causing; it to careen. It ran upon the bridge for some distance over the, sleepers* then careened the other way and leaned against the ironwork of the sid& of the bridge. The passengers* of whoza there were about thirty in. the car,, found them selves ab tho top of the car,, while- it seemed to some of them that the car was. tumblingoff the bridge into- tlie river bolow» The passengers managed to crawl cwat,, none of them being very seriously injured. It v/aa subsequently found that 65 had boen killed and 50 injured.

A Conductor's Fatal Mistake Lexington (Ky.), January I.— The col. lision on the Cincinnati Southern Road, near Greenwood, Ky., on a sixty-foot embankment, reported briefly last night, is now known to have resulted in the death of the following passengers : — Lee Withrow, baggage - master ; James Severens, postal clerk ; T. C. Candee, fireman ; Lawrence Callan, baggage - master ; W. B. Powell, express messenger, and Miss Jessie Green of Chattanooga, passenger. Fifteen persons, passengers, and train hands, whose names have not been secured, are known to have been seriously, some of them fatally, injured. In addition to them the north-bound trains this evening carried to Cincinnati five or six badly-injured passengers. The railroad officials here refused the Associated Press reporters access to them and would not give their names. The collision was caused by Conductor Shrumm misreading the orders delivered to him at Winfield. He mistook " Summit " for " Somerset " and hurried the train down the grade of fifty miles an hour to make up that point. Conductor Bennett ran up to Shrumm after the, collision and said: "I'm not to blame for this; read your orders and see." Shrumm took out his orders and looking at them, threw up his hands and exclaimed, "Ob, my God, I've made a mistake.." The baggage-car and .smoker of train 2 rolled down the embankment, and the ladies' car was thrown on the engine, the inmates being thereby scalded. The two engines came in collision with such force that they were virtually welded together, and could not be pulled apart to-day.