AN AMERICAN RAILWAY DISASTER.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 120, 16 October 1896, Page 2

AN AMERICAN RAILWAY DISASTER.

A most appalling accident took place onJuly 30th, ou the Pennsylvania Eailroad, two miles from Atlantic city, when the Philadelphia and Beading express ran into and cut in two an excursion train. The latest details to hand show that the catastrophe was one of exceptional magnitude, and involved in death no fewer than 43 people, whilst over 100 were severely injured. The collision occurred through the engine-driver of the Philadelphia and Beading express mistaking the signals. The danger sign was up, but the driver kept on and crashed at a speed of nearly a mile a minute into the excursion train which was at the moment crossing the rails diagonally at a junction The first car of the excursion train was shivered into atoms, and all its occupants killed instantaneously. The cars behind this were telescoped, three of them being overturned and burled down the embankment into a watery marsh below. In this ooze one carr was quite submerged, and its human freight suffocated and drowned. The Philadelphia and Beading engine left the track and dashed down the embankment. The engine driver stuck to his post and was killed, his body being borne by the shrieking engine into the mire below. From the wreck arose the cries and groans of the wounded and dying, and then occurred that fearful accompaniment of American railroad accidents. Fire broke* out, and the shattered cars were soon wrapped in flames. The survivors stood dazed and helpless at the destruction that had been wrought and the fearful contortions of the dying. Soon, however, this inaction ceased, and help was telegraphed for to Atlantic City, and relief trains brought fire engines, doctors, and nurses, together with clergymen, to perform the last rites of the victims.

Before the fire engines were able to subdue the flames, the boiler of the Beading engine exploded, and the hot water and steam scalded both the injured and their rescuers. Meanwhile the work of rescue was proceeding speedily. The broken timbers were carefully raised, and the dead and injured removed. The dead and the injured were horribly mangled, and the most heartrending scenes occurred as the survivors sought the missing by the light of bonfires. The clergpmen did all they could to comfort the dying, while the doctors worked hard binding up wounds and operating on damaged limbs. To add to the horror of the event thieves came on the scede and began to 10b the dead. Several of these ghouls were captured, and narrowly escaped lynching by the outraged people. Several of the injured are violently insane from the shock. Some terrible scenes were witnessed. For the most part the passengers were excursionists coming from small towns in New Jersey: and all night crowds of people waited for news at country stations. A signalman at the junction where the accident took place has been arrested, pending the result of the investigation by the State authorities.