THIRTEEN PERSONS KILLED AND MANY INJURED.

Auckland Star, Volume IX, Issue 2465, 15 February 1878, Page 3

THIRTEEN PERSONS KILLED AND MANY INJURED.

Hartford, January ;16fch.—A-serious railroad accident happened on the Connecticut Western Railroad just beyond Tariffville, about ten miles from Hartford, at 10 o'clock this evening. An exeuraion train returning from the Moody and Saukey meeting at Hartford, tell through a trestle bridge into Farmington River. Two ■engines and one baggage and three passenger cars went down. Fifteen or twenty-five were wounded. From five to twenty persons are killed whose names are not known. The train contained ten crowded cars. Two engines, baggage aud passenger coaches went dowu to the western endof the bridge, the engines touching .the shore ; three cars breaking througli the ice in three feet of water, and one ear resting on the end of the pier. The first locomotive had cleared the west span aud entered upon tke trestlework, when the entire span gave way, breaking off immediately east of the heavy stone pier in the centre of the river. As the structure gave way, the first engine was hurled violently over and imbedded in the ground, and "completely wrecked. The other engine and baggage-car went down with the wreck in an upright position, and the side of the heavy truss fell over upon rthem. The first passenger car was whirled around and sank to the bottom of the river, lying parallel with the stream. The second passenger car went down end foreaiost upon the first car, smashing the largest portion into kindling wood, the rear end resting on the bridge. The next car occupied a similar position, but swerved to the left and did not rest upon the car in front. None of the remaining cars left the track. The crash, and the cries of the wounded anddying, speedily brought assistance, but the first coiners worked at a great disadvantage. The cars had broken through the ice, which made it difficult to approach near enough to reach the passengers. The scenes on the relief train were heartrending. In ■every car were men and women with their heads bandaged or their arms in slings. Some had been terribly scalded. In one •coach were the bodies of three women, .and in the baggage cars two more, just as they had been taken from the wreck. Rev. Mr Thomas, of Whisted, with both limbs ■fractured and severely injured internally, ,crawled out of the wreck through the roof of.a car to the ice, and then to the shore. Nearly all the dead, were in the first passenger car, which is almost a complete wreck, although one body was taken_ from the second car this evening, where it was found caught under a broken seat. Five young men from New Hartford, among the killed, were a party of e%. They were on the pUtfonn of the car, enjoying a moonlight ride and whistling in chorus. The only survivor of the six was inside at the time.