Near Pottsville, PA Trolley Car Plunges Off Trestle, Dec 1911

58 HURT AS TROLLEY FALLS FROM TRESTLE.

CAR LOADED WITH THEATREGOERS JUMPS TRACK OVER CREEK NEAR POTTSVILLE, PENN.

ONLY THREE ESCAPE INJURY.

ONE MAN MISSING AND MANY MORTALLY HURT -- CAR FALLS FIFTEEN FEET INTO STREAM.

Special to The New York Times.
Pottsville, Penn., Dec. 25. -- Crowded with passengers en route to take in a performance of "The Chocolate Soldier" at Pottsville to-night, one of the big eight-wheeled trolley cars of the Eastern Pennsylvania Railways Company, which had gathered up theatregoers from all points of the territory north of Orwigsburg and Schuylkill Haven to the county seat, plunged over the trestle at Cape Horn Mount Carbon, several miles south of Pottsville, falling into a creek which is a tributary of the Schuylkill River.
There were sixty-one passengers on the car, of whom only three escaped injury. None of the passengers was killed outright, but several of them are in a very critical condition. Fractured limbs, wrenches, and contusions were plentiful, and some are hurt internally and their condition may be a great deal more serious than appears to be the case to-night.
All of the passengers have been accounted for except HARRY BUTZ of Schuylkill Haven, who canot be found. There are rumors that he may be pinned beneath the wrecked car or that he may have been hurled into the Schuylkill River close by and carried down by the strong current.
The car which went over the bridge left Orwigsburg, the old Schuylkill county seat, distant from Pottsville about six miles, promptly at 7 o'clock. The crowd bound for Pottsville was large because of the interest in the operatic attraction at this place. Tickets were sold at Orwigsburg, Adamsville, Schuylkill Haven, Seven Stars and all way points.
There were so many passengers that it was necessary to run a second section to the regular car. It was this second car that met with the serious accident. It was in charge of Motorman HARRY DUNDORE and Conductor WILLIAM ROBERTSON. The former, who was hurled from the forward platform, was very seriously hurt, and will probably die.
The regular car, which preceded the extra, made the trip over the trestling in safety, but the second car, for some reason that cannot be explained, jumped the track. The bridge is an open one and the car went over the side, dropping about fifteen feet into the bed of the creek. Fortunately this stream contains only about two feet of water at this time of year, or many of the passengers would have been drowned.
The creek is an artificial one, having been constructed to carry water from the Schuylkill River to the canal lock at Cape Horn, where in the palmy days of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, loaded coal barges were taken from the Pottsville anthracite shipping headquarters to tidewater points. This was before the construction of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway cut off the canal traffic.
It is an isolated spot, and is in proximity to a deep cut through the mountain by which the Pennsylvania Railroad main line reaches Philadelphia.
Among the more seriously injured is MISS ANNIE CLEARY, a public school teacher of Schuylkill Haven.
MISS MATTIE HARTRANFT of Schuylkill Haven, is crushed about the upper part of the body, and it is believed she will die.
MISS MARY McCORMICK of Schuylkill Haven was badly injured about the head, but her condition is not serious.
MISS ANNIE MOYER of Cressona was hurled into the water, and a young man who went to her assistance pulled her arm out of the socket in dragging her out.
Immediately after Conductor ROBERTSON telephoned the report of the accident to trolley headquarters, relief cars from Pottsville and Schuylkill Haven, with a corps of doctors and trolley officials, were dispatched to the scene.
The most seriously hurt were those who crowded the rear portion of the car and the platform.

The New York Times New York 1911-12-26
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!