Rockport Sag, NJ Terrible Railroad Disaster, June 1925

KIN OF 42 WRECK DEAD STORM HOSPITAL.

POLICE CORDON HOLDS GRIEVING RELATIVES OFF.

Near Riot at Easton Hospital Where 22 of 42 Wreck Victims Died.

FIVE INQUIRIES START.

Two Coroner's Juries Visit Scene of Lackawanna Railroad Horror.

Hackettstown, N. J., June 17 (AP) -- The death roll in the wreck of the special emigrant train of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad near here yesterday today mounted to 42 with a score of others in scattered hospitals still in a serious condition. The dead now number 22 in Easton, three in Hackettstown, six in Dover, and three in Morristown.
With the number of deaths mounting steadily authorities today were investigating the accident, two coroner's juries visiting the scene at Rockport Sag. One jury was empaneled by Coroner FISHER of Warren County while a second was empaneled by E. J. WILDRICK, justice of the peace, at Hackettstown.
The Easton Hospital, where 22 deaths occurred, was the scene of a near riot early this morning when a special train bearing relatives of the escursionists from Chicago arrived. Hundreds of grief-stricken persons thronged to the hospital and it was necessary for the police to draw lines about the building to keep them from storming the place.
LEOPOLD NEUMANN, the agent who organized the excursion of Middle Western Germans who were on an annual trip to Germany, today was busy seeking to establish the identity of those dead whose names were still unknown. His work was hindered, he said, by the fact that about 80 of the excursionists left the scene of the wreck for New York and sailed on the Republic yesterday. His wife, carrying his baggage and passports, was among them, he said. He himself still has the keys and is in a quandary what to do.
The bodies of three women who died in Easton are still unidentified. Although their names are known it was stated to be impossible to establish which is which.

Score of Wreck Injured Still in Critical State; Suffer Intense Agony.
New York, June 17 (AP) -- Five separate investigations were under way today in the wreck of a Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad tourist special train at Rockport Sag, N. J., 60 miles west of here, in which 42 persons were killed, and 33 injured. Of the injured the cases of 18 are considered serious.
The train carried 182 German-Americans mostly from Chicago. They were bound for Hoboken, N. J., to embark on the liner Republic to visit the fatherland from which they had emigrated years ago. Only 80 sailed on the Republic yesterday.
Speeding on a down-grade, the seven-car train hit a stretch of much and debris that had been washed over the tracks by an electrical storm early yesterday. The heavy locomotive ploughed through, but the pony tender was thrown off the track. It clutched the frogs of a switch farther on and wrenched the locomotive and four steel cars from the rails.
The coaches piled up on top of the overturned locomotive. The steam pipes burst and sent scalding fog spouting directly onto the passengers in the cars.
It was the breaking of the pipes that caused the deaths of at least 30 of the victims. JOSEPH SNYDER, a farmer, watching the storm from his home nearby, saw the accident, sounded the alarm by telephone, and with his wife rushed to give aid. LYMAN GULICK, another farmer, rode half clad in his automobile to Hackettstown, two miles away, and summoned physicians and ambulances from there and other towns.
When the rescuers arrived the steam had spent itself. The suffering was intense. One man jerked a roll of bills from his pocket and begged SNYDER to kill him. Only four trainmen and a few passengers were killed instantly. One woman was decapitated. The others went through hours of agony before they died in hospitals at Easton, Pa., Dover, N. J., Phillipsburg, Morristown and Hackettstown.
Finds Wallet, Helps Rescuers.
MR. and MRS. JOHN PFEIFER, an elderly couple from Hold Corss, Ia., riding in front of the first coach and survived the accident with slight bruises. Other survivors told of a slightly scalded Chicago woman who limped moaning through the wreckage until she found her missing wallet. Then she shouted joyously and helped the rescuers.
It was a care-free party in charge of a Chicago tourist agency that was plunged into agony. On the sides of the cars they had nailed large banners "See the Old Country Again." Most of them were sleeping when the crash came.
Railroad officials blamed the storm for the disaster. By a queer twist of fate the train had been routed over the old main line of the road at Delaware Water Gap, Pa., instead of using the more traveled cutoff build several years ago.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has sent investigators to the scene. Coroners of Phillipsburg, Hackettstown and Belevedere, N. J., have started inquiries.

Syracuse Herald New York 1925-06-17
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!