HEAVY DEATH ROLL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 September 1943, Page 3

HEAVY DEATH ROLL

IN AMERICAN RAILWAY DISASTER 150 PERSONS KILLED & MANY INJURED; FAST EXPRESS WRECKED ON CURVE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) PHILADELPHIA, September 6. The death-roll numbered 150, with at least 90 injured, when the Congressional Limited express was wrecked en route from Washington to New York. Six cars of a 16car train were wrecked. The crash occurred on a curve in a crowded residential district. It knocked down high tension cables and a water tower which flooded the wreck. The top of one car was torn off as though by a giant knife. The steel framework of another was twisted so badly that the first rescuers on the scene w.ere unable to find an opening through which to reach the screaming injured inside. The authorities have urgently appealed for blood donors and assistance. Acetylene torches were used in an attempt to rescue many who were trapped. A priest who administered the last rites found 75 in one car, and he said that at least half of-them were dead. The Congressional Limited is one of the best trains between Washington and New York. Hours after the wreck rescuers were still struggling frantically to extricate victims. The divisional manager said that the wrecks was caused by a burnt-off bearing. Thousands of spectators gathered, watching horror-stricken as searchlights were turned on the wreckage. Two carriages in which most of the deaths occurred were rolled to the edge of the embankment. One was cut in two by a signal tower and the other crumpled like an accordeon, nearly all the occupants 1 being trapped. The speed limit where the wreck, occurred was 45 miles an hour.