THE FALL OF A TRAIN INTO A RIVER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6966, 15 March 1884, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE FALL OF A TRAIN INTO A RIVER.

A FRIGHTFUL. DISASTER. A DK.si'AT.ni from Indianapolis to a Heir York paper, dated Jan. 31, says :—Broad Ripple is Qii the Monon route, the new air line;.to Chicago. At ten a.m. to-day it 'Was the scene of the most frightful accident that ever took place in Central Indiana.: .'JL'he train that left Monon at 7.10 a.m., due at. Indianapolis at 10 30 a.m., was running at the ■speed of thirty miles an hour. The engineer,, John Brewer, bad left the engine for a moment in charge of the fireman .while he w.en'f into the baggage car to get a drink of water, At that moment the engine went, upon the .north end of the bridge, a stracture of the Howe truss pattern. The bridge swayed, the.fireman; threw the throttle wide open, and,, with the tender, the engine leaped to the' south span. There,was a crash, : the bridge went down, and the baggage car, plunged into the chasm, the two . passenger ; coaches .following.:upon it; :and. eachj telescoping with the. other;. The wreck, partly held; up from the. engulfing: waters bythe ragged timbers of the bridge, caught fire and piled, horror upon horror's head. Amid the crack-.; lint; flames could be seen the writhing forms of the imprisoned ones, while their agonising shriek 3 froze the blood of thie. .Villagers / who had gathered on the banks of the stream but were powerless to eff ct a: reacue. lFoor carpenters were at work upon the bridge and were carried down with the train. Three jumped into the water as the structure fell; but the fourth, the master builder, .Thomas Parr, 6f Delphi, was; caught and went down with the wreck.. His body has not yet been recovered. When the news reached this city a wrecking train was got out, and burgeons and supplies were promptly taken to the scene of the disaster. Frightful as it was,, the accident would have, been much '■ greater had the train had its fulL compliment of passengers instead of having a few. The greatest number of killed was in the baggage car. The cause of the .accident; is unknown.Shortly before the ill-fated train came to the . bridge, a heavy freight train, had crossed, and no one thought of danger, as the bridge was a new one,, completed on the 27th of last month. The theory is that between the.pass-; ing of the two trains the bridge builders had drawn the nuts from the safety bolts whica sustained the great timbers of the bridge in Order t.O tighten them, and that when thus weakened the train came upon the north span, which is 130 'feet long. The bodies taken out of the burned, cars, were njrrely charred and l mutilated remnants; and:wholly unrecognisable. On reaching the , wrick a chaotic scene was; presented;. The bridr,< and cars were yet those present were so lacking in presence of. ,min.?. : as to be unable to extinguish the fiaines or relieve the sufferers. The officials of the road, worked vigorously and systematically, : and in a short time the flames were extinguislied. Then a search for bodies was begun. Six per.soils had been either? killed onfrightr or burnpd to death. Tile only means of identifying those burned wis by ineombustr , ible trinkets known to be the property of the dead. The scenes at the wreck, were/ extremely distressing. The dead .were .in the, ruitss of the smoking and baggage cars, and ■ these, one on top of the other, were in deep water. A skiff was used'for transferring the.' bodies from thu ruins of the cars toJand. .B. .1. White, who was working undcr the bridge, when the train went over, says he thinks the rods pulled through the nuts, letting the. . bridge down. To .all appearances,one of the. breaks occurred within fifteen feet of the the pier and another about midway of the,, i upan. White's escape: was :truly marvellous.. I Standing, on the ice; the falling cars : and i bridge struck him on: the head and drove him through the ice and down to the very bottom, r iif: the river. The timbers did,: not rest upon., him, however; and ho swam out more, dead I than: alive, covered with, bruises but able to i walk. The newsboy of the train: says - he l ! could have extinguished the fire with a single l. bucket of water. but it waß not to be had; C. '(J. Loder and J. ]5. Horton. were in the 1 smokingcar, at one end of: which lay a man: with his skull crushed and life extinct.; Across the latter -ind close to the: red hot; stove lay Lynn. Clarke; a ;heavy timber bind-, ing one of his legs immovably. Lodder 'cried; . to; find an axe, with which cach car is provided, butit was on the other side of the car.; in three feet of water. "For-God's sake don't desert me;" cried. Glark; " And we did. not desert him." Mr. Loder says, "until the/ flames scorched us, and we were almostsuffocated with smoke,". Before leaving the car Loder kicked out. a window close by; Clarke and left him in agony. Presently the: flames .burned the .timber in s two at a point 1 ; close by Clark;, enabling, him to crawl out of : the window, which had been kicked out by; Loder., Conductor Losey says that in five, /minutes.after..!he.train went down the entire, wrecki was wrapt in flames, and in leßs than ■ .that ' all who. had....not i already . escaped were drowned; Frightful, screams came from the ruins: near;' the - pier, .but... with only two! : buckets and.no boat, :«re were powerless, and ; all we could'.do was to close our ears . and and pray for death to relieve our comrades.