TRAIN'S TERRIBLE PLUNGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8808, 21 December 1906, Page 2

TRAIN'S TERRIBLE PLUNGE.

PASSENGERS DROWNED LIKE 'RATS IN A TRAP. A New York cable to the "Daily Mail," dated October 28, says: — Eighty-seven persons were killed this afternoon, when three cars of an electric train from Philadelphia plunged through a bridge as the train wais entering. Atlantic City. The bridge is nearly a mile long, over a body of water known as the Thoroughfare, separating Atlantic City from the mainland. About 200 feet from the entrance of the bridge the forward car broke through the guard-rail and plunged into twenty feet of water. The other two cars followed, but the rear of the third car caught in an abutment and hung forward, tho end in the water and tlie rear out of it. Through the rear dcor twenty persons escaped. A subsequent message gives the following additional particulars of the accident ; — Further information fails to lessen the horror of the Atlantic* City disaster, or materially to reduce the deathlist. At noon to-day iiity-ono dead bodies had be'en recovered from, the two cars, and others known- to be dead bring up the list to seventy. In addition,- among the forty injured, at least ten are beyond hope of recovery. Tlie full horror of the disaster remains in the sudden death overwhelming tho family parties of pleasure seekers, who were imprisoned in the carriages, and wero drowned just as rats are drowned when the cage in which they have been caught is plunged into a bucket of water. It ia the speediest and most humane way of destroying captured vermin, and the belief that the excursionists came to their end ewiftly and without the terrors of a long death struggle is the only mitigation cf the horror which the circumstances afford — for other discoveries only serve to deepen the horror. It was found to-day Ihat it was not an inevitable mechanical failure which caused the train to plunge i'rom the drawbridge, but that criminal neglect and recklessness, which rendered such a result at some time inevitable, were responsible for the disaster. The interlocking mechanism connecting the rails on, the swing bridge with the rails on the trestle was faulty, and had always been faulty. The railroad peopleknew it was faulty, to the extent that every train crossed with risk, yet they permitted it to be used. Moreover, the trestle bridge, of which a. swing bridge formed the centre, was itself a flimsy, shaking, tottering structure, which swayed under the strain of the crowds to-day when efforts were made to raise the submerged cars. It is also asserted that the air brakes on the rear car had failed to act during the run from Philadelphia. RAILS NOT IN LINE. Twenty minutes before the accident happened the drawbridge had been opened to. allow a small yacht to pass. According to the statement made in his excitement after the tragedy, by an old man named Dan Stewart, who is keeper and flagman- of the bridge, the mechanism for closing it was not exact enough for automatic alignment of the rails, and it was frequently necessary for him to use the hand windlass to make perfect the adjustment. He declares now that the bridge was properly closed and tho rails properly Locked ; but the instability of the trestle, together with the imperfection of the looking mechanism, is believed to furnish sufficient explanation. The foremost car, which first plunged into the water, was raised and brought ashore at midday. It did not contain any. bodies, but three were found lying underneath it in the mud at- the bottom of' the creek. The survivors' stories are thrilling, almoet terrifying. John Ivelley, of Camden , is believed to be the only surviving occupant of the crowded forward, ear. He had chosen a front seat, in order to watch the motorman's operations. He says: — " I felt the car leave the tracks, hut the series of shocks as it bumped over the tics was little worse than when it went at full speed over the rough parts of the new read. Then I felt the car falling as it plunged off the bridge. It [ was a sickening sensation. I recall j that the whole world seemed spinning j round, with gleams of water and sky i and visions of strangely-wondering faces whirling past. Then there wns quiet, like the quiet of the grave, until there came a tspksh as the car struck tho water. THRTLLIN& ESCAPE. ''Then I heard the women's wild shrieks, followed b} r ihe roaring and rushing of water in my ears. I found myself lying in darkness in a corner of the car ? but light was showing through some window within reach. I remember smashing it with my fist, feeling it break., forcing myself through the aperture, »md then shooting upwards through the w-ater to the surface, where I clutched a floating piece of wreckage, and held on until I was picked up by a boat. I don't know how long it all took, but I seem to remember that the screams of the woi men anil children lasted only an instant before they were silenced by the water." Among the few spectators of the catastrophe were the men in the signalbox a short distance from the bridge. Their narrative*? show the terrible sudden n-ees with which death came to the occupants of the two leading care. This is Samuel Hopkins's brief narrative:-- -" I saw the train coming along, and when it came to the bridge it gave a s'»rt of twist and partly stopped. Then tlie two front cars diopped over and sunk like stones. Tlie third car hung over the edge a moment while the people were climbing out of the doers and windows, and then balanced over. By tho timo I got there, there were a lot of bubbles bursting on the surface of the water where the first two cars disappeared. I suppose every bubble represented a life. That's .all I saw." Divers fetched from Philadelphia and Camden worked all night extricating tho bodies. They saw .terrible sights when, smithing the windows with hammers, they managed to gain admittance into the submerged carriages*. Many of the dead facrs were terribly gashed, evidently in. attempts to- •escape by the window.'?. One little baby's head wars smashed in.