St Louis, MO Trolley Car Wreck, Jun 1908

ONE DEAD, THREE WILL DIE

SCORE INJURED IN ST. LOUIS TROLLEY-CAR ACCIDENT.

Crowded Car, Going at High Speed, Leaps Embankment---Child's Throat Cut by Glass.

ST. LOUIS, June 7.---One man was killed, three persons so badly injured they will die, and two score more were more or less seriously hurt late tonight, when a suburban streetcar bound for this city from Creve Coeur Lake jumped the track and pitched ten feet over an embankment. The car was running at a high rate of speed when it struck a sharp curve. The motorman, Francis McEndre, has been placed under arrest.

The dead:

HENRY KIRKWOOD, Mo.

The accident occurred two blocks west of the city limits at a curve, 200 feet south of Olive-street road. Hundreds of pleasure-seekers at Delmar Garden near by were quickly at the scene and carried people from under the wreckage. Night Chief of Police Gillespie ordered every ambulance at the disposal of the city sent to the carsheds at De Ballviere and Delmar avenues, where the injured were taken temporarily. Physicians from hospitals in the immediate vicinity rendered first aid to the injured.

Morning Oregonian, Portland, OR 8 Jun 1908

--------

A TROLLEY WRECK HURTS 93.

In St. Louis a Car Fell Down a 10-Foot Embankment.

ST. LOUIS, June 7.---At least one man was killed, several dangerously injured and practically every one of the ninety-three passengers was bruised when an eastbound Creve Coeur car jumped the track at a curve 200 feet south of the city limits late to-night and pitched ten feet over an embankment. Six of the passengers cannot recover, according to the physicians, who were called to the scene.

The conductor was dragged out from beneath the motor box with his chest crushed in and both legs cut off. The motorman was pitched from the platform several feet away from the car. He was knocked unconscious but not dangerously injured. Half of the passengers in the car were women and children returning from Sunday school picnics at the lake. Many women were pulled from under the wreckage of the car, unconscious and bleeding from various wounds. One of the children's throat was cut from ear to ear by being shoved against an iron bar over the window.

Morris Stein, who was walking near the tracks when the accident occurred, was the first to come to the aid of the injured.

"I saw the car coming around the curve at about twenty miles and hour," he said. "All of a sudden it jumped from the track at an angle of 45 degrees, turned over sideways and toppled over the embankment. It was all so quick that no one had a chance to leave the car. It rolled over on to the other track before it went down the slope."

The Kansas City Times, Kansas City, MO 8 Jun 1908
__________________

Transcribed by Linda Horton. Thank you, Linda!