TERRIBLE TROLLY ACCIDENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1917, Page 7

TERRIBLE TROLLY ACCIDENT.

14 DEATHS AT NIAGARA FALLS. At the beginning of July a cable mado brief mention of serious losa of life at the famous falls through a street car on the American side breaking away and canting most of its occupants into the raging waters below, The sad occurence took place at 3.30 p.m. on July 1 when a Belt lino car on ithe Great Gorge route left the rails and turned over in 10ft of water on the very edge of the Whirlpool Rapids, where captain Webb lost his life in attempting to swim the rapids. ' A washout, due_ to previous heavy rains, was the cause of the disaster, which occurred just below the Canti-' lever Bridge and 00ft below the point where the smooth waters of the upper reaches of the Niagara River break into the turbulent waters of the Whirlpool Rapids. , The ear was in charge of Louis E. Crandall, motorman, and Alexander Heron, conductor. It had all but completed the circuit of the gorge, having crossed from the Canadian side of the. river on the trolley bridge at Lewiston. There were more than 50 passengers on board, according to estimates. The car was one of the open type, the seats extending from side to aide, with steps on both sides the full length of the car. All the seats were occupied, and many people were "straphangers," while the rear platform was also crowded. The car was running at a speed of 20 miles an hour when it struck a weak spot in the roadbed. Less ' than half a minute elapsed from the time that the motorman felt the firs't jarring shock until the car was bottom up on the edge of the stream. As it slipped down the 20ft incline from the tracks to the edge of the river screaming men and women fought to escape, and some of them were able to get free, but failed to gain a footing on the steep bank. From the river side the bodies of at least two of the passengers were seen to be caught in the swifter waters, and were carried down to the Whirlpool.

SOLDIERS RUSH TO RESCUE. Members of a National Guard regiment who were on guard at the Cantilever bridge saw the accident and were firsts to the rescue. The soldiers slipped down the bank into the river, and worked in water up to their waists getting injured passengers free from the wreckago and passing them up the bank, whore au emergency car had been placed to carry them to the Niagara Falk? Hospital. The supports of the roof on the forward part of the car had been crushed by the impact on the rocks in the river bottom, throwing the seats together. This | pinioned many of the passengers below the surface of the water, and it was in this part of the car that most of the fatalities occurred.

SWEPT INTO WHIRLPOOL. "I believe at least half a dozen bodies were carried down the river to the Whirlpool," said one of the soldiers who was taken to a hospital to recover from exhaustion. "When I was running down the railroad tracks I saw out in the stream what seemed to me to be twoj arms raised above the surfacp. Ten' ,feet away from them I am sure I saw the bright color of a woman's dress near tho surface, and still further down a man was swimming in an effort to get out of the rapids. He disappeared." Heron, the conductor, was in the forward part of the car collecting the last of the fares. He was thrown from the running board and crushed to death as the car toppled over. Fourteen were killed outright, and over 30 more or less injured.