Pittsburg, PA Terrible Street Car Accident, Dec 1917

17 DIE IN STREET CAR ACCIDENT.

Pittsburg, Dec. 24. -- Seventeen persons were killed outright, half a score fatally injured and nearly forty others seriously hurt at the Water and Carson streets station today, when a Knoxville trolley car jumped the track at the south end of the Mount Washington tunnel and crashed into the station filled with Christmas shoppers. Refusal of the brakes to work is given as the cause of the accident.
The accident occurred during a busy period of the day. The car itself was crowded and was bound for the downtown section of the city with scores of women and children, intent of their late-hour shopping inside. While coming down the grade in the tunnel the brakes suddenly let go, and despite the efforts of the crew started down toward the station at a terrific pace.
While women screamed and shrieked in terror, the juggernaut roared down the incline. The Water street station stands at the city end of the tunnel. The station platform was crowded with shoppers and many more were inside the station. A great number of these were children, en route to local department stores to see Santa Claus. While they stood laughing and chatting and making plans for the morrow the trolley car suddenly crashed out of the tunnel.
Scores stood panic-stricken. There are several switches at the station intersection and one of these is supposed to have thrown the car from the rails. Before a single person could make a move to avoid the impending disaster the hurtling car jumped the track, crashed through the human barrier that opposed its flight, tore its way through the station platform and smashed into an embankment. Woman and children were crushed like flies.

Oakland Tribune California 1917-12-24

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MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN PERISH IN RUNAWAY CAR.

SIXTEEN DEAD AND SCORES INJURED IN PITTSBURG STREET CAR ACCIDENT.

LIGHTS DIE IN TUNNEL -- MOTORMAN LOSES CONTROL AND CAR PLUNGES DOWN GRADE IN FATAL RUNAWAY.

Pittsburg, Penn., Dec. 24. -- The death list was increased to sixteen late tonight when two of the injured died in hospitals. Many of those who escaped alive from the wrecked car are so seriously injured that they will probably die.
The work of identifying the dead progressed slowly and it was midnight before a list could be obtained. Of the sixteen dead, nine were women, one a child and six men. The bodies of two women lay unidentified at the morgue at this hour.

CHRISTMAS HORROR.
Pittsburg Street Car Runs Wild Killing Many.
Pittsburg, Penn., Dec. 24. -- Sixteen persons were killed and every other one of the 114 passengers on a Knoxville street car was more or less hurt here late today when the car ran away in a tunnel which connects the south side business district with the south hills. At the hospitals, the doctors said that a number of the injured would die.
New Type Car.
The car, which was of the latest low floor, steel type, was packed with city bound shoppers when it left the station at the south end of the tunnel. A minute or two later the trolley is said to have left the wire, and the lights went out. At almost the same instant, for some reason not yet determined, the morotman lost control and it dashed down the steep grade, gaining momentum as the wheels slipped along the wet rails.
The passengers were thrown into panic. A few feet from the mouth of the tunnel is a short curve, but so terrific was the speed the car had attained that the wheels at this point left the tracks, and turned over on its side.
Runs Amuck.
It did not stop, but, tearing along the sidewalk, struck a telegraph pole, the roof was ripped off and men, women and children were scattered along the roadway. Even then the wreck continued on its way and finally brought up in a little confectionery store near Smithfield street.
Early reports place the number of dead at seventeen, but a canvass of the hospitals and the morgue showed that sixteen had been killed
outright, eight of whom were women and one a little girl. Some of the bodies were scarcely recognizable and identification proceeded slowly.

The Bismarck Tribune North Dakota 1917-12-25
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!