RAILWAY DISASTER.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 37, 18 December 1897, Page 12

RAILWAY DISASTER.

A TRAIN IN THE HUDSON.

A PASSENGER’S THRILLING NARRATIVE.

New York, Sunday Oct. 24th.—An express train travelling from Buffalo to this city on the New York Central Railway was wrecked hear Garrisons. The engine, a combination baggage and smoking car, one day coach, and four i sleeping cars were thrown into the Hudson. It is believed that at least twenty persons were killed, including seven or eight Chinamen, who were in the smoking car.

One of the passengers, Mr Langford, of Bayonne, New Jersey, who was in the coach which remained on the track, procuring an axe, undressed and swam out to the sunken car. By chopping a hole in the side of one of them he rescued four persons.

The water rose to within a foot of the roof in the combination baggage and smoking cars, which was hurled round by the current, one end being slightly above the level of the water. The Chinamen were in the submerged end, but the baggage-master and the express agent, who were in the other, swam about inside the car, opened the ventilator, and found a tool box which was floating. Taking an axe from it, they smashed a panel outwards, and climbed out on the roof of the car. A number of other persons were rescued by rowing boats. The accident was caused by the retaining wall which supports the track giving way under the weight of the train. Later.—The exact loss of life in the railway accident at Peekshill is still unknown. A New York newspaper estimates that fifty persons perished, and says that the two front cars of the train are submerged under fifty feet of water. Two sleeping cars, though lying in the river, had windows facing the shore out of water, and many persons were able to escape through them. The enginedriver and fireman perished, but the guard escaped. The train was running very fast at the time of the accident. People in the neighbourhood hurried to the scene and rendered assistance. Nine persons who were rescued from the submerged cars were stripped and brought to New York in blankets in a prostrate condition. Seven of them, who were women, were cut by glass while being pulled through the windows. The sleeping-car conductor can account for all his passengers with tke exception of five. It is not certain, however, whether they are dead, as a driver has examined the sleeping-cars, but has not found any bodies. The estimated number of persons who perished (twenty-eight) is believed to be accurate.

Mr S. D. Wilkinson, of the Oxford University Press, London, says : ‘ The first thing 1 knew after the accident was when I found myself all huddled in a corner of my berth, where I had been thrown by the shock. A pillow had got lodged between my head and the partition, or I should have been seriously hurt. 1 pulled myself together, and got on a few pieces of clothing, which was not an easy task. One end of the sleeping carriage was in the water and the other on the rails. The carriage was still attached to another. I could not get out by the door, and saw a window in which there was no glass. I afterwards found out that all the other occupants of the car had escaped by that window. I climbed out all right. ‘ Meanwhile the cries of those in the other cars in the water were pitiable. They could be distinctly beard, and were heartrending. I went forward to see if I could help, and the sight that met my eye I shall never forget. It was pitiable in the extreme. Women and men were here and there on the tops of carriages with their faces cut and clad only with bits of clothing. Many were standing on the tracks with bare feet, while a number were on the roofs of all but the submerged carriages. They were got on shore as

scon as possible by those more fortunate. Not a vestige of the locomotive or forward carriages could be seen. They had plunged into the river, and were, I understand, in fifty or sixty feet of water. ‘ The bravery of the women was most marked. Some of them stood about talking lightly of the accident. Many had little clothing, and had been in the carriages in the water some time before they could be got out. In the ‘ sleeper ’ with me was Lord Douglas. He had a hard time in getting out. He had injured his foot before he left Toronto. His escape was marvellous, as he was at the end of the carriage nearest the locomotive. His injured foot made it extremely difficult for him to get out, but he rescued himself all right.