Binghamton, NY Trains Collide, Sep 1933

14 KILLED, 100 HURT AS ERIE MILK TRAIN SMASHES REAR OF TRAIN NO. 8 AT BINGHAMTON.

FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY AND RAILROAD OFFICIALS INVESTIGATE FIRST ERIE WRECK CLAIMING LIVES IN YEARS -- WOODRUFF DECLARES ENGINEER KING OF FREIGHT ADMITS KNOWING TRACK NOT CLEAR -- WOODEN COACH SMASHED.

Binghamton, Sept. 6 (AP) -- Fourteen persons were killed and more than 100 injured on the eastern outskirts of the city last night when a milk train crashed into the rear of Train 8, the "Atlantic Express," on the Erie Railroad, eastbound.
The passenger train had stopped because of a switching crew that was working on the main line ahead. Flagman A. C. MORRIS of Hornell had been sent out to protect the rear of the Chicago-New York passenger train. He had affixed torpedoes to the rails.
The milk train, heavily laden, bound from Hornell to Hoboken, ploughed into the steel coach at the rear of the flier. The terrific impact demolished a wooden coach just ahead of the steel car. Most of the dead and injured were taken from the wreckage of the wooden coach.

The List Of Dead
HARRY LANNON, 38, Susquehanna, Pa., employed engineering department of Erie at Hornell.
DONALD BURNS, Susquehanna, Pa., employed in Erie coach shop.
HARRY WESTFALL, 44, Erie yardmaster at Susquehanna, Pa.
ELI VAN AIKEN, Susquehanna, Pa., telegrapher.
M. C. McCOLLOM, Susquehanna, Pa.
MRS. T. M. KEANE, Susquehanna, Pa.
MRS. MARY BOUILLE, Susquehanna, Pa., mother of MRS. KEANE.
MRS. ARTHUR TESKEY, Susquehanna, Pa.
MRS. CATHERINE HARRISON, Conklin.
M. DABROZEK, Brooklyn.
JULIA COMFORT, Susquehanna, Pa.
CECIL TESKY, Susquehanna, Pa.
Two women unidentified.

The Injured.
The Injured:
EDWARD MUSE, Paterson, N.J.; his sister, and his mother.
JIMMY CARUSO, Susquehanna, Pa.
JOSEPH DONAHUE, Paterson, N.J.
PHILIP HARTLEY, Paterson.
DOMINICK MAURO, Susquehanna.
ROSALIE FAHEY, Susquehanna.
BETTY SANITT, Brooklyn.
EMMA ORLANDO.
CATHERINE PLUTINO.
DOROTHY FERBOSS.
JAMES McGRATH.
GERTRUDE TAYLOR.
BETTY GARRETT, New York.
BETTY TESKEY, Susquehanna.
MRS. MILDRED VAN AIKEN, Susquehanna.
ALEX GOLD, Rockaway Beach.
LIBBY GOLD, Rockaway Beach.
PAULINE GALUTIN, no address.

The accident occurred about a mile from the Binghamton station and almost opposite the State Hospital for the Insane. A state highway follows the tracks at this point and on the other side is the Susquehanna River.
M. H. KING, of Elmira, engineer of the milk train dazed but not injured, said he did not see the red block set against him. He said he applied his brakes as soon as the passenger loomed ahead but it was too late to halt his heavy train. B. A. SHEA of Hornell was the conductor of the milk train.
Eleven of the passengers on the flyer were dead when taken from the wreckage. Three others died on the way to Binghamton hospitals. Three of the bodies were unidentified. Twenty-five of the injured were seriously hurt.
So great was the confusion at the wreck that it was several hours before the extent of the casualties could be determined. The Binghamton City Hospital, taxed to the limit, had difficulty in listing the persons it treated. Several of the bodies were so badly mangled that identification was almost impossible.
Motorists on the highway were the first to the scene. They loaded the screaming and hysterical injured into their machines and sped away to the city. Ambulance crews from Binghamton and a detail of National Guardsmen recovered the bodies and rescued many of the injured buried under splintered timbers and bent steel work.
Many of the passengers of the train were at dinner in the diner two cars ahead of the wooden coach. They were hurled from their seats and several hurt by a shower of broken dishes.
Rescue crews encountered difficulty in extricating many of the bodies, pinned under heavy timbers and wedged between steel debris.
One was hurled more than 50 feet from the track. She was dead when found.
Most of the other coaches of the passenger train were derailed. The locomotive of the milk train was bounced off the tracks but its crew was not hurt.
An immediate investigation into the cause of the wreck was ordered by Robert E. Woodruff, vice president of the Erie, from the company's general offices in Cleveland.
"Our first concern has been to take care of the people who were injured," he said, adding that "we have surmises as to what caused the wreck, but at the present time they can only be surmises."

Salamanca Republican Press New York 1933-09-06
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!