FATAL COLLISION

EXPRESS TELESCOPES LACKAWANNA TRAIN FILLED WITH EXCURSIONISTS AT CORNING.

VICTIMS KILLED IN SLEEP

Elmira and Corning Hospitals Overcrowded with Victims, Many of Whom Were on Their Way to Niagara Falls.

Corning, N. Y., July 5. -- Westbound Lackawanna passenger train No. 9, from New York, composed of two engines, a baggage car, three Pullmans and two day cars, in the order named, was demolished at Gibson, three miles east of Corning, at 5:25 o'clock a. m.
More than forty persons were killed and between fifty and sixty persons were injured. Many of the victims were holiday excursionists bound to Niagara Falls, who had boarded the train at points along the Lackawanna line.
The wreck was the worst in the history of the road. Its cause, according to WILLIAM SCHROEDER, engineer of the express, was his failure to see the signals set against his train. The morning was foggy and he said he couldn't make out the signals.
The wrecked train stood on the main track blocked by extra freight train No. 61, which had become crippled. There was no flag out, according to SCHROEDER. The signals which SCHROEDER declared it was too foggy to see were just around the curve. The flying express plunged past them and crashed into the rear of No. 9, bringing death to more than two-score of its passengers.
Identified Dead.
Following is a list of the dead who have been identified:
ARMSTRONG, WILLIAM A., Hokoben[sic], N. J.
BRANDIES, MR. AND MRS. CHARLES, New York City, on their wedding trip.
DUAK, HERMAN, Newark.
ERWIN, MRS. C. E., Chicago.
FETODUCATI, MRS. LUCY, New York City.
HESS, MRS. EDITH A., Scranton, Pa.
IVEY, DR. E. V., of Bellevue Hospital, New York, home, Suffolk, Va.
JONES, MRS. ANNA HILL, Scranton, Pa.
LAIRD, GEORGE, Brooklyn.
LAIRD, MRS. WILLIAM R., Brooklyn.
LAIRD, PHILIP, two years old, Brooklyn.
LAIRD, MABEL, five years old, Brooklyn.
LOWERY, EVELYN, negress, Newark.
NOVAK, ANTONIO, Scranton.
NELSON, ANTON, Jersey City.
PRATT, F. C., Buffalo, traveling salesman.
PATOUSKI, M., immigrant, ticketed to Buffalo.
PRAVELOWSKI, REGINA P., Russia.
REYNOLDS, MRS. LILLIAN, Brooklyn.
SMITH, JAMES, negro, Pullman porter, Newark.
SCHULTZ, ERNEST, Buffalo.
ZIMMER, MR. AND MRS. J., Scrantan[sic].
Of the injured, four of the unidentified died in the Corning Hospital. Several have nothing about their persons by means of which they could be identified.
Eleven persons are being cared for in St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira, while the others are in the Corning Hospital.
There are eight women, three men with no identifying marks. There are a girl five years old, a woman with gold pin marked “F.G.A., 1909” and ring marked “L.B.” a girl three years old, a baby 16 months, a woman with gold pin marked “P.J.” a man 28 years old with ring marked “M.G. To F.P., '91.”
Trainmen say that this loss of life was caused by the carelessness of the engineer of the express train who ran at a terrific speed past a frantically signalling[sic] flagman and the warning of a dropped semaphore arm.
The dead, which filled to overflowing the morgues of the little town are in many instances so mangled that identification is almost impossible. The engine of the express train ripped its way through the two day coaches in the rear, killing instantly everyone in them, plowed on through half of a steel Pullman, throwing the sleeping car off the track, and then came to a standstill.

Ogdensburg Advance and St. Lawrence Weekly Democrat 1912-07-11

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FORTY KILLED IN D., L. & W. WRECK

EXPRESS TELESCOPES PASSENGER TRAIN NEAR CORNING, N. Y. IN REAR-END CRASH.

DOOMED TRAIN HALTED BY FREIGHT BLOCK -- EXPRESS RUSHES BY SIGNALS, HURLS TWO COACHES FILLED WITH HOLIDAY CROWD DOWN EMBANKMENT -- BODIES TORN TO PIECES.

Corning, N. Y., July 4 -- Nearly forty passengers were killed and fifty injured to-day when an express train crashed into the fast westbound Lackawanna passenger train No. 9 two miles east of this city.
Many of the dead were persons from New York city returning to spend the Fourth at their family homes in the southern and western parts of the State. Some were mutilated almost beyond recognition.
Thirty-four bodies had been taken from the debris at 9 o'clock this morning. Several of the injured will die.
The passenger train, which runs from New York to Buffalo, had been standing on the track for twenty minutes when the express train, which carried no passengers struck it in the rear at full speed.
The two day coaches attached to the rear of No. 9 were hurled down an embankment and the express plunged half way through the rear Pullman of the standing train before it came to a stop.
Most of the dead and injured were in two day coaches at the rear of the train, which were toppled into the ditch. Passengers in the five Pullman cars were more fortunate in being further away from the point of impact.
The collision occurred at 5:25 o'clock this morning.
Score of Doctors Sent.
Most of the killed were passengers in the day coaches who were home to spend the Fourth. F. W. DRAKE of Passaic, N. J., the Pullman conductor, said that four passengers were killed in the Pullman.
On account of the confusion and the lack of wire communication news of the disaster was slow in reaching this city, but by 6:30 o'clock a score of physicians were on the scene and the injured were being brought to the Corning hospital.
The bodies of the dead were laid on top of the embankment along the tracks and at the roadside and covered with blankets from the Pullman.
Injured Pinned Under Wreckage.
A number of the injured are still pinned under the wreckage and their groans and shrieks can be clearly heard.
At one time there were nearly fifty persons, many of them fatally injured, lying on the floor of the emergency room at the local hospital.
Every undertaker in Corning was called to help care for the dead, but their wagons were first pressed into service to carry the injured to the hospital. Many of the injured also were takenaway in automobiles.
As yet the cause of the wreck has not been determined.
The place where it occurred was a straight stretch of track. So far as can be ascertained the engineer of the express train had no warning that the passenger train was in his way. It is believed that when he first saw it he thought the train was standing on a parallel track.
Identification Is Slow.
Thw work of identification of the dead progressed slowly. Among those first identified were:
ANTONIO NOVA, Cartaret, N. J., who had a ticket from Scranton to Buffalo.
MRS. LILLIAN REYNOLDS, No. 211 Spencer street, Brooklyn, N. Y.
WILLIAM A. ARMSTRONG, No. 1020 Park avenue, Hoboken, N. J.
MRS. LUCY SETTODUCATTI, aged 60, No. 123 Baxter street, New York city.
As soon as news of the accident spread, hundreds of automobiles dashed to the scene, blocking the roadways and interfering with the removal of the dead and injured. A detail of police was sent from this city to keep the roads open and to keep the crowds back from the wreckage, from which the injured had not all been removed at late as 9 o'clock.
Among the killed are several babies or young chilcren. One man, stooping to pick up what he thought was only a bit of white cloth lying on the ground, uncovered the body of a baby.
A special relief train from Elmira arrived at 7 o'clock, bringing physicians and nurses, etc.
A score of great confusion prevailed at the wreck, and it was impossible just after the catastrophe, to get any list of the dead or injured because no attempt had been made to identify them. As fast as they were removed from the wreckage the bodies were covered with blankets and the efforts to reach the injured before it was too late were redoubled.
Speedy Probe Planned.
Coroner HERBERT S. SMITH ordered all the bodies removed to the city and he is planning to hold an inquest to-day before the passengers, who will be the main witnesses in the case, have left the city. He sent for a deputy sheriff who was soon issuing subpoenas among the passengers who for the most part were all at the scene of the wreck, wandering about bewildered.
The passenger train was heavily loaded and was drawn by two engines. It was running about half an hour late.
Train No. 9, which was wrecked, left New York at 8:45 P. M. last night and was due at Elmira at 4:26 A. M. Its schedule called for no stop at Corning.
The passenger train had been brought to a standstill by a freight train stalled in front of it, owing to the pulling out of a drawhead. The freight therefore was unable to take a siding to let the passenger train pass. One of the two engines of the passenger train was uncoupled and attached to the freight train to get in on the siding. The conductor of the passenger train, MR. SAPLES of Elmira, says he cause the signals in two blocks to the rear to be set against any westbound train.
Pullman Passenger's Story.
"The train had been standing about twenty minutes, when there came an awful crash which pitched me forward against the front of the dressing room." said A. D. INGRAM of Chicago, one of the Pullman passengers. "I was seated putting on my shoes and was hurled with great force. A second later there seemed to come a second jolt and then the engine of the express train came to a full stop and there was no more motion. There was an awful grinding and crunching and then a great crash as the day coaches were pitched into the ditch."
"Then came the screams of frightened and hurt persons mingled with the groans of the injured who found themselves pinned in the wreckage."
Bodies Torn to Pieces.
A wreck train was sent to the scene and work of removing the debris was begun within two hours after the accident.
The workers were confronted with a ghastly task. In more than one instance pieces of human flesh, torn from the broken bodies of the victims, were picked up with the smashed steel and timbers.
An improvised hospital, was also set up alongside of the wreck.
The shrieks of the wounded could be heard for a quarter of a mile.
The passenger train No. 9, was loaded with persons on their way home to spend the Fourth. It was one of the finest trains on the road.
The passengers in the Pullman cars were protected by the heavier construction of those coaches.

Trains Too Close In Block Scranton Officials Believe.
Scranton, Pa., July 4 -- It is believed by officers here that it was impossible to get on a flagman in time to prevent the collision, the express having entered the block close behind the passenger train. Nearly all the cars in both trains were wrecked and thrown across the tracks, breaking down telegraph wires, so that details are unobtainable at present. Names of dead and injured are not expected at the general superintendents office until this afternoon.
Division Superintendent CYCEK of Binghamton, with a wrecking train carrying doctors from Binghamton, Waverly and Elmira, hurried at once to the place of the disaster.
Most of the injured were removed to Corning hospitals. Nearly all the passengers boarded the train at Hoboken. Some got on at Scranton and nearly all were bound for Buffalo and points beyond. The crews of both trains were from Binghamton.

Lackawanna Officials Cannot Explain Wreck.
Special to the Syracuse Herald.
New York, July 4. -- At the office of the general superintendent of the Lackawanna road it was stated at 12 A. M. that the officers of the road had received no definite information regarding the wreck other than the general wreck news. They said that the reason for this was that the wires were down and it was impossible to get into direct communication with those at the scene of the wreck.
"Train No. 11," said one officer, "is an express train that leaves New York every night about 9 o'clock, with eight or ten cars of express, bound for Buffalo. All of our tracks are thoroughly protected by the electric block system, and while it seems there is a curve in the track near the point of the collision which might have hidden train No. 9 from the view of the other crew, yet the block signals should have been sufficient. JUst why the engineer of No. 11 ignored those signals no one known."

The Syracuse Herald New York 1912-07-04
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!