ELEVEN PASSENGERS DEAD
AND MANY MORE SERIOUSLY INJURED IN THE WRECK.
DETAILS OF THE COLLISION NEAR HARRISBURG--ARREST OF A TELEGRAPH OPERATOR WHO CONFESSES THAT HE GAVE A WRONG SIGNAL.
HARRISBURG, Penn., June 25.---The Western express on the Pennsylvania Railroad, leaving New-York at 6:30 P. M. and Philadelphia at 9:20, is due in Harrisburg at 12:15 A. M. This morning, however, it was several minutes late on leaving Philadelphia, and had not made up the lost time when it reached here.
It was made up of one baggage car and one express car, three day coaches, and the private car of George Westinghouse, the Pittsburg inventor of the air-brake. Robert Pitcairn of Pittsburg was also with the Westinghouse party. As the train rolled into Harrisburg it was stopped a few minutes at Dock Street, east of the station, to allow some shifting in the yards, the flagman being sent back to signal the second section, which was following close behind.
He was soon called in and the train had but started when the second section dashed around the sharp curve a few yards away. Then came a grinding and crushing sound and immediately after the groans and shrieks of injured and dying passengers.
The first section had stopped within a few hundred yards of the Union Station, and was just starting when the second section, a heavy train, made up of Pullman sleepers and one express and baggage car combined, plunged into the handsome private car of Westinghouse and drove it forward, crushing the three day coaches ahead into kindling wood in the twinkling of an eye.
The locomotive plowed its way through the rear of the private car, but not a single member of the Westinghous party was scratched. The porter, however--W. H. Woodyard of Philadelphia--was slightly hurt.
In the day coaches many passengers were half asleep and were awakened by the crashing and grinding of the timbers, the breaking of glass, and the hissing of escaping steam, while others never knew the fate which overtook them.
Engineer Hugh Kelly and Fireman Harry Neal, both of Philadelphia, sat in the cab of the locomotive which buried itself in the Westinghouse car. As their train rounded the curve at Dock Street they realized the awful blunder that somebody had committed, but it was too late to avert the catastrophe. With a piercing shriek the engine crushed into the first section, and the baggage car behind, pressed forward by the ponderous Pullman sleepers, capped the locomotive with its splintered fragments. The smokestack was also knocked off and the locomotive was practically dismantled. As if by a miracle, the cab, in which sat the engineer and the fireman, was not touched, and they escaped to tell of their deliverance. Both were stunned by the concussion.
Two of the day coaches were partly overturned and the helpless occupants screamed in agony. Willing hands helped them to get out of the debris, and with blood streaming from their faces they presented a terrible spectacle.
The scenes in the cars immediately following the crash battle description. The two coaches in which most of the casualties occurred were broken in pieces, and the occupants of the cars were thrown in every direction. Arms and legs were broken, faces were crushed and lacerated, and scarcely a passenger escaped without cuts and bruises more or less serious.
One man shot through the broken top of a car and landed alongside the track, not receiving a single scratch. There were many other remarkable escapes. The porter of the Westinghouse car was wedged between the locomotive and the side of the drawing-room car. He crawled through a window and was not much hurt.
The operator at the Steelton tower is alleged to have permitted the second section to enter the block before the first had cleared it. Another story is that the rules of the company require the engineer to have control of his train when approaching the terminal point, and that the second section was not under such control when the accident occurred.
Col. O. E. McClellan, Superintendent of the Middle Division, was among the first at the wreck, and personally took charge of the work of rescue.
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