Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 25 August 1928, page 1


TWENTY PERSONS KILLED

Train Derailed in New York Subway

NEW YORK, August 24.

Twenty persons were killed and more: than 50 injured when the rear carriage of a rush-hour train on the subway at Times square was derailed this evening. There were harrowing scenes. Rescue work was hampered by dense and choking smoke consequent upon the tiring of woodwork by sparks from the high voltage electric cables. The rear carriage was thrown sideways through a switch being split. It struck a stanchion and broke in two. The forward half was forced down the track and collapsed in a crumpled heap 200 ft. away.

Either a defective switch or the error of somebody 'in 'throwing the switch be fore the entire train .had cleared, caused the disaster. - ' . It' was first thought that the -derailed south-bound express train bad crashed into the north-bound express, but an 'in-spection showed tha£ the 'north-bound train had stopped, just at.it touched the wrecked train. The two rear cars of the latter were hurled sideways through the steel pillars at -the edge of the track, shearing slices off the. cars as if they were paper. Their momentum carried these two cars into the tunnel walls, where their sides were torn off and they were twisted and torn, so that it seemed scarcely possible that any of the hundreds aboard them could be alive. So widespread became the panic that every available policeman and fireman was summoned to the centre of the city. It began' when the screams and the noise of the terrific crash rose- through the street gratings. Police and pedestrians rushed to the subway entrances. They were tossed -aside by a wave of humanity fighting and struggling toward the exits. It was nearly a quarter of an hour before anyone could reach the scene within to give aid. 'BLACK AS NIGHT' Traffic Patrolman . John Wood . was riding his horse past the entrance to the subway,- when the crash told him that some disaster had- occurred.. He leaped toward the nearest entrance, and succeeded in reaching the 'platform before ? the rush started.

'Everything was as black as night,' he said, 'but I could hear people r*ereara- ; ing a few yards down the tunnel. I tried to make my way to the end of the platform, but the crush and the panic was so great that I' could -not make headway until six other officers joined me.' Mr. Thomas Guilfoyle was in the subway depot when he heard the crash. He raced into the inky darkness, stumbling over the. torn third rail. He pulled several people through a window of the wrecked carriage, and led 15 to safety. 'I saw -eight dead persons at one «nd of the wrecked car,' he said. .'Three had their heads severed from their bodies. Passengers were screaming and fighting, and children were being trampled on.''' Although the current was shut off almost immediately sparks from the shattered high voltage lines evidently set fire to bits of woodwork and filled the black cavern below the passenger platform with dense smoke. Out of this smoke, coughing and reeling, staggered the first of the injured. Many of them had smashed their way through windows or crawled from under the twisted wreckage. The first crash was heard above ground two blocks away, and by the time that the first rescuers had arrived the smoke was issuing from the darkened and suffocating exits. Fifty doctors worked amid the -wreckage within the hour. ? Bellvue Hospital, nearby, handled 50 of the worst injured, aud the French Hos-pital became so crowded with emergencies that many of those who had sustained minor injuries were turned away to other hospitals.

PROUD OF HIS CHARGES.— Viceregal couple enjoy chat With 'Boysie' Bowells, who won a wristlet watch for a special demonstration of handling a pair of goats at the Charity Carnival. His admirers are Mrs. Hill (wife of the Hon. L. L. Hill), who represents the Adelaide Hospital Auxiliary, Mr. Tom Leahy (chairman of the Charity Carnival Committee), Lady Hore-Ruthven, His Excellency Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthvefl, V.C., and Mr. W. Gurner (representative of ----- . ? -' ? ? ??-?- ? *he-Stoefc E^cbanoe), s- -- -'-- '--- ? -;

PROUD OF HIS CHARGES.— Viceregal couple enjoy chat With 'Boysie' Bowells, who won a wristlet watch for a special demonstration of handling a pair of goats at the Charity Carnival. His admirers are Mrs. Hill (wife of the Hon. L. L. Hill), who represents the Adelaide Hospital Auxiliary, Mr. Tom Leahy (chairman of the Charity Carnival Committee), Lady Hore-Ruthven, His Excellency Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthvefl, V.C., and Mr. W. Gurner (representative of ----- . ? -' ? ? ??-?- ? *he-Stoefc E^cbanoe), s- -- -'-- '--- ? -;