TRAIN WRECKED

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22137, 8 September 1943, Page 4

TRAIN WRECKED

DISASTER IN AMERICA MANY KILLED OR INJURED (United Press Assn.—F.lec. Tel. Copyright) PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 6 Deaths numbered 150 with at ; least 90 injured when the Congresj sional Limited express was wrecked near Philadelphia while en route ! from Washington to New York. Six | cars of the 16-car train were ; smashed. The crash occurred on a curve in a crowded residential district and brought down high-tension cables and a water tower which flooded the I wreck. j The top of one car was torn off •asif by a giant knife. The steel : framework of another was twisted so i badly that the first rescuers on the scene were unable to find any opening through which they could reach the screaming injured inside. The last crumpled coach of the express was cracked open today, yielding four more bodies, bringing the known dead to 62. Dr Goddard, the Philadelphia coroner, estimates the ultimate deathroll at from 75 to 100. At least 123 of the 154 passengers were injured, and many of them are reported to be near death. The railroad company said it is possible that more bodies will be found in the tangled metal of one coach. Authorities made an urgent appeal for blood donors and assistance. Acetylene torches were used in an I attempt to rescue many who were I trapped. ; A priest who administered the last rites said that at least half the people in one carriage were dead. Hours after the wreck rescuers were still struggling frantically to extricate the victims. Occupants Trapped Thousands of spectators gathered and watched horror-stricken as search-lights played on the wreckage. The two carriages in which most of the deaths occurred rolled to the edge of an embankment. One was cut in two by a signal tower and the and trapped nearly all the occupants. The Congressional Limited is one of the best-known trains running between Washington and New York. The divisional manager said the wreck was due to a burned-out bearing. The speed limit where the wreck occurred is 45 miles an hour. The New York Herald-Tribune describes the wreck as the worst disaster in American railway history. At least 100 physicians and hundreds of nurses were rushed to the scene. Even the motor-cars of holi-day-makers were commandeered to transport the injured to hospital. Many injured were sent to near by churches and remained there until accommodation was available. Holiday-Makers Among Victims The confusion was so extensive that no effort was made to identify the dead until several hours after the | disaster but many victims could not be identified because of mutilations. The passengers included a number of Government officials, as well as servicemen, but the majority of the injured were holiday-makers returning tc- New York. Another Train Wrecked The New York Centrals Twentieth Century limited, travelling between Chicago and New York, was wrecked this morning when a locomotive boiler exploded, killing three of the

crew in the engine cab. At least seven others were injured. The locomotive, mail car and nine of the fifteen passenger cars were derailed. Four cars plunged down an embankment and others were strewn on the tracks.