FRIGHTFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN AMERICA.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 233, 30 April 1868, Page 2

FRIGHTFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN AMERICA.

A New York journal of 25th December furnishes this account of as shocking a railway disaster as has occurred even in America for a considerable period:— The Buffalo papers give the following details of the recent frightful railroad slaughter at Angola, twenty-one miles west of Buffalo, on the Lake Shore Railroad. The train to which the accident occurred was'the New York express train, consisting of two first-class and one second class coaches coming east. The catastrophe occurred at the crossing of what is known as Big Sister Creek, about a quarter of a mile east of Angola Station. The Creek is a shallow stream, at tho ordinary level, bordered on the eastern side by a low flat, thirty or forty rods wide, while its western bank rises with considerable abruptness to the level of tho surrounding country. Tho track

of the railroad is carried over most of tlio flat upon an embankment of earth, from the termination of which a truss bridge- about 100 feet in length spans tlio creek. The height of the bridge above the ordinary level of the creek is somo 80 feet.

As nearly as can bo ascertained, the next to tho last car of tho train was thrown from tho track on striking a frog at tho switch just this side of Angola station, and was dragged over tho tics nearly to tho bridge before tho car behind it became unseated from the rails. The time during which this plunging along the ties continued was sufficient to enable some, but not many, of the passengers sitting at the forward end of this car to make their escape from it into the car ahead. Just as the train reached the bridge the rear ' car was jerked from the track, and ran nearly across tho bridge. An instant more and it would have reached the bank; but just at the edge it toppled over on the left side, and went with a fearful crash, end foremost, down the ice-covered slope, 40 feet at least, to the flat below. It is easy to imagine the frightful wreck to which the car was reduced by the terrible descent. All, or nearly all of its passengers, of course were precipitated into a mangled, struggling mass at the lower end of the car, buried under a heap of ruins, and even the slightly injured, if any there were, unable to extricate themselves. The horror of the situation was sufficient without that which instantly became added by the igniting of the splintered wreck from the overturned stoves. A moment, as one of the three sole survivors describes it, and the whole was 'wrapped in flames. The dry wood of 'the car burned like a heap of kindling, and it was little more. How many the flames devoured in this car cannot be told with certainty. It was wellfilled with passengers, probably, says ' one of the survivors, not less than fifty, : and only three are known to have escaped. It was some moments before any one 'could reach the seene to attempt assistance. The second car, in the meantime —the car first thrown from the track —had plunged over the opposite side of the embankment, falling a less height, but suffering almost as complete a wreck, and its few uninjured passengers had enough to occupy their attention. The train, which had run some distance before being stopped, was backed to the scene as speedily as possible, and those on board set to work with promptitude and energy. But the steep and ice-covered slope to the car, most horribly situated, was not easily descended, and when helping hands reached it, they were without weapons for fighting the flames or for breaking into the wreck. As soon, of as they could bo summoned, tlio people of Angola and nearer inhabitants ran to the spot, and it was not long before many buckets were employed in pouring Water upon the burning wreck; but. a raging fire is not to be overcome with buckets, and those desperately laboring at tho work had to suffer the unspeakable anguish of seeing their efforts made utterly in vain. The hideous, remorseless flames crackled oh; the shrieks died into moans, and moans into a silence more terrible, as the pall of death drew over 'the scene. Except one little fragment of the side of the car, nothing but a heap of smoking cinders was left for those gathered round to search into 'with sickened hearts.

As we have already stated, the car next the rear one was that with which the disaster originated, tmt its fate was less terrible than the fate of the ear following. . The headlong plunge of the latter threw it over, but not until the bridge had been passed, and it made its descent on the opposite or right side of the embankment, where the height was not more than twentyfive feet. The crash was only less awful that that already described. It was not followed, however, by the more frightful calamity, the fire. Twice the car was kindled by "the coals from the broken stoves, but the passengers were in a less hopeless situation, and the flames were extinguished. One of the three persons who escaped from the rear car was Mr B. Mayer, the travelling agent of Eistori, who is now at the Buffalo General Hospital under treatment for severe but probably not serious injuries in the back, head, and ankles. Mr Mayer's statement to our reporter Avas as follows :—"I had just stepped out of the closet when I felt the jerking of the train as it was thrown from the track. I sprang up instantly and caught hold of something in the roof ot tho car, supporting myself. This saved me, when the car went over the bank, from being pitched forward with the rest of tho passengers into tho heap, where overyono was helplessly buried in tho crash of tho mins.

Exactly how I crawled out I do not know. I was one of only throe who escaped. I saw an old gentleman and his wife get out of the wreck. lam sure that not another person escaped. The car was full—not less than fifty persons, I should think, within it. Those who were not killed outright were burned to death. The wreck was in llames in a moment. Ido not know how I and the two I have mentioned could have escaped." At fivo o'clock, when tho train from Buffalo, containing tho physicians, &c., arrived at the scene of tho disaster, it was about dark, objects at a short distance were anything but distinct. The hurned car was a mass of rr.ins, but the odour of burning human flesh permeated tho atnosphere, and gave convincing evidence that the catastropho was a heart-rending and awful one. The second car which met with disaster was lying a perfect wreck, but all its inmates had been removed, and everything that medical skill and kindness could suggest was being done for them.