New York City, NY Fast Train Crashes In The Bronx, Feb 1907

A SCORE ARE KILLED.

FAST TRAIN WAS DITCHED IN NEW YORK CITY.

MOST OF THE VICTIMS WERE WOMEN, WHO WERE CRUSHED TO DEATH IN THEIR COACH.

New York, Feb. 16. -- The White Plains and Brewster express, a six-car electric train on the Harlem division on the New York Central & Hudson River railroad, jumped the track at a curve near Woodlawn road, in the Bronx, bringing either death or injury to probably three score of its 150 or more passengers.
At 9:45 o'clock the police reported that they had recovered seventeen bodies from the wreckage and that there might be other victims in the ruins of the train. Of those removed to hospitals it was said that a dozen and perhaps double that number would die of their injuries.
The train -- No. 25 -- left the Grand Central station at 6:13 o'clock, drawn by two heavy electric motors and loaded with a matinee crowd and commuters on their way home from business, it was made up of the combination and smoking car and five passenger coaches. At Woodlawn road the four tracks run through a rocky cut and take a sharp curve. When the train reached the curve it was, according to the passengers, running at a very high speed, estimated by some at sixty miles an hour. Both motors and the smoking car swung safely around the curve, but the cars following left the rails and plunged over on their sides with a terrific crash and tore up the tracks and after sliding a hundred yards, collapsed in one mass.
Most of the Victims Were Women.
Of those instantly killed by far the greater number were women. Many were mangled beyond recognition. Ambulances and surgeons from every hospital in Bronx borough and from Bellevue in Manhattan responded in hurry calls, as did two fire engine companies and the police reserves from many stations. Many of the injured were quickly extricated from the wreckage while others were so pinioned that they could not be taken out for some time.
Those most seriously injured were hurried to hospitals, while coroners took charge of the dead as fast ast the bodies were recovered. Fire started in the overturned cars but the flames were quickly extinguished and the firemen lent their aid to the injured. Special trains carried many of the injured to White Plains and Mount Vernon, while others were brought to the Grand Central station and sent to hospitals in this city.
Superintendent BROWNSON, of the Harlem division, stated at 11 o'clock tonight that the tracks had been cleared. The police estimate of the dead is now sixteen.
The rear car, containing more women than others, suffered the greatest as it was overturned and before the breaking of the coupling released it from the cars ahead of it was literally torn to pieces and broken bits were scattered for a hundred feet across Woodlawn avenue. When the ambulances arrived those desperately hurt were hurried to hospitals.
The Dead:
MEYERON E. EVANS, White Plains, civil engineer.
ROBERT J. ROSBOROUGH, White Plains, employe.
E. F. JOHNSTON, Briar Cliff, N.Y.
C. F. PAIGE, Williamsburg, N.Y.
MRS. MARY KINCH, Chappaqua, N.Y.
MISS or MRS. E. P. WARREN.
W. SLOANE.
J. SLOANE.
ANNIE MOORHEAD, aged seventeen.
JESSIE A. JABIN.
CLARA S. HUDSON.
MRS. JESSIE TOBIN.
MRS. EDWARD BRADY, Golden Bridge, N.Y.
LEGARE WALKER.
Eleven Unidentified Dead.
The train was in charge of Engineer EDWARD ROGERS and Conductor JOHN WILLIAMS.
In the motor car with ROGERS was the assistant superintendent of the division, F. E. WILLIAMSON. Operating Inspector B. O. STEVENS was also on board.
The cause of the wreck was not officially determined tonight. At the Grand Central station there was inclination to blame the accident to spreading rails but later it was said that it was believed that the axle of the first passenger coach broke, throwing the cars from the track.
ALthough the scene of the wreck was in a thickly populated section it was some time before nearby residents reached the scene. For a time only one physician could be secured. Later aid come without delay. EDWIN VANDEVORST, of White Plains, was one of the passengers in one of the four derailed cars who escaped with slight injuries.

The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette Indiana 1907-02-17
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!