West Penn, the accident
John Swindler
j_swindler at hotmail.com
Thu Sep 28 11:50:06 EDT 2000
Trivia question number 5: So where was the West Penn trolley tunnel in the
coke region???
You say West Penn never had any tunnels? That's what I thought, but there
was apparently more to the company than what has been previously published.
As a follow-up to the 1918 article on the first use of orange on West Penn,
follows is a selection of articles from the Connellsville Courier during
1917. Again, this is just one year out of a 60+ year history.
Enjoy
John
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 26 January 1917
VERDICT FOR WEST PENN IN A $20,000 SUIT FOR DAMAGES
Trial in Pittsburg Courts is Decided Against Moyer Man
JUDGE DIRECTS FINDING
Court Decides That Ernest Buttermore Who Lost Leg Near East End, November
14, 1914, Was Not a Passenger and Thus Could Not Press Claim
Binding instructions to return a verdict for the defendant were given to a
jury in the Allegheny County court yesterday afternoon in the case in which
Ernest Buttermore of Moyer sued the West Penn Railways Company for $20,000
for the loss of a leg when run down by a trolley car at East End on the
night of November 14, 1914
Judge Reed ruled that inasmuch as the testimony had shown that Buttermore
had boarded and left several cars on the night he was injured and had not
paid his fare on any of them, he never had been a passenger and could not
claim damages.
Ernest Buttermore was run down by a West Penn car somewhere between East
End and Moyer on Saturday night, November 14, 1914. He was brought to
Connellsville and taken to the Cottage State Hospital where his leg was
amputated.
Suit for $20,000 damages was entered in the Allegheny courts, rather than in
this county where the accident occurred, service being secured on the
defendant company by reason of the fact that it owns property in McKeesport.
The case was on trial for the first four days of this week and its
progress was watched with interest because of the fact that it was taken to
another county. Attorney S. R. Goldsmith of Connellsville and Roy M. and
Meredith R. Marshall, Pittsburg attorneys, argued the case for the plaintiff
while the West Penn was represented by Burleigh & Challoner.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 30 January 1917
HURT ON CAR, SHE SEEKS LARGE SUM
Woman Sues West Penn for $20,000 for Injuries Suffered During Electrical
Storm
UNIONTOWN, Jan 30: Before Judge J. Q. Van Swearingen in common pleas court
is being tried the damage suit of Mrs. Annie S. Jones and John J. Jones, her
husband, against the West Penn Railways Company for $20,000 damages for
alleged personal injuries sustained by Mrs. Jones.
Claim is made by the plaintiffs that Mrs. Jones boarded a West Penn car at
the Iron Bridge on September 7, 1913, paying her fare to Scottdale. The
mechanism of the car became charged with electricity, during an electrical
storm, it is alleged, and Mrs. Jones is said to have received serious
injury.
Claiming $6,000 damages for personal injuries said to have been received on
October 7, 1914, in Brownsville during “Old Home Week” the band of West
Brownsville, against J. Baker and Samuel L. Baker, her husband of West
Brownsville, against J. W. White, alias John W. White, trading as the White
Line Taxicab Company of Brownsville, was begun today in common pleas court
before Judge E. H. Reppert.
Mrs. Baker testified that while she was crossing the bridge over Redstone
Creek between Brownsville and South Brownsville, she was struck by a taxicab
owned and operated by Mr. White and drive by one of his employees. Mrs.
Baker claimed that the automobile was being driven recklessly and at an
excessive rate of speed, no warning being sounded as it approached her. She
testified that she was knocked down, sustaining injuries to her spine from
which she has suffered great pain and permanent injury.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 1 February 1917
WEST PENN WINS BIG DAMAGE SUIT
Jury Finds for Defendant in Case in Which Woman Claimed $20,000
The suit of Mrs. Anna S. Jones and John J. Jones, her husband against the
West Penn to recover $20,000 damages for injuries Mrs. Jones claims she
suffered on board a street car on September 7, 1913, was decided in favor of
the defendant by a jury in criminal court at Uniontown yesterday.
Mrs. Jones claimed that she boarded a summer car at Iron Bridge, near
Scottdale, on September 7, 1913, and that shortly afterward she suffered a
severe electrical shock, which, she claimed, caused permanent injury and
nervousness. It was brought out by the defense, however, that the plaintiff
had been treated for other ailments for more than a year prior to the
alleged accident.
Mr. Jones testified that for several days immediately following the alleged
injury he was unable to go to work, being compelled to remain at home with
his wife, and said that every time a fire alarm was turned in he was
compelled to go to his wife and remain the rest of the day on account of her
nervousness. Mr. Jones time book, which he admitted was kept by himself,
was produced by the defendant and offered in evidence. The book showed that
he had worked nine hours a day, on the several days following the alleged
injury.
Emery Smith, conductor on the street car, testified that there was no flash
of lightning on September 7, 1913, while his car was going between Mount
Pleasant and Scottdale. A report sheet, which he identified as having been
written by him, was introduced showing that he reported a blinding flash of
lighting shortly after the car left Iron Bridge.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 1 February 1917
MAY BE EXTENDED TO WEST NEWTON
Proposed New Connection is Up to the Board of Directors of System
LABOR IS VERY SCARCE
This Fact May Delay Construction of Line to Tap Populous New Territory But
Matter is Being Seriously Considered; Decision May Come Soon
That the West Penn is considering an extension of its trolley lines to West
Newton and other Yough river towns, connecting with its present lines at
Hunker or at Greensburg, was the intimation of an official at the
Connellsville offices today. The matter is up to the board of directors and
their decision may come soon, it is stated.
Residents of the populous mining region of Westmoreland County are watching
the matter with keen interest. One business man from down the river said he
had authority ?????????? to the effect that the line could be built this
year.
An official of the engineering department predicts that the line will not be
built this year because of the labor shortage. Another official was not so
sure of this.
“It’s up to the directors,” he said. “If they decide to build the road this
year, it will be built.” Evidently, he does not think that the talk about
the new line is far fetched, and does think that there is a fair chance of
the extension being constructed.
The new line would either run direct to Greensburg or tap the West Penn’s
main line at Hunker. It would connect Wyano, Yukon and Madison and a score
or more of other coke towns of the region, and would reach West Newton,
where a trolley franchise was granted some years ago to the Kuhns when they
were the controlling factors in the West Penn. The territory to be tapped
is populous and it seems that a trolley line would be certain of big
patronage.
At West Newton, tracks have been laid on fir or six square, the authorities
there having decided when the streets were paved that they would not be torn
up again for a trolley line. The tracks are still there, waiting for cars
to run on them.
The proposed trolley extension was first talked of some years ago, and
rumors of the construction of such a line have broken out periodically eve
since. Whether the desire of the Yough valley people for electric
transportation will be gratified now is a question of great interest to
them.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 28 February 1917
RUNAWAY CAR HITS BUILDING
West Penn Trolley Races Down Street and Plunges Into Structure After Leaving
Rails
A runaway West Penn street car, unmanned, crashed into two Uniontown
buildings last night, shortly before 11 o’clock, almost completely
demolishing the two story frame house owned and occupied by Miss Viola Crabb
and badly damaging John Nara’s three story brick building, at the corner of
Connellsville and east Main Streets. No one was hurt.
The trolley is reported to have gotten away at the Uniontown car barn. It
traveled down Connellsville Street very slowly until it struck a steep
incline, then gained speed with every revolution, and it was rolling along
like an express train when the trucks hit the frog at the East Main Street
corner and the car jumped the tracks.
It plowed into the two buildings, going completely through two walls of the
Nara building and reducing Miss Crabb’s home to a mass of twisted timbers.
The car toppled over against the ruins of the houses and is a total wreck.
Tenants in the buildings were much frightened but none received the
slightest injury.
After the accident, the electricity was turned off throughout Uniontown,
and West Penn lineman and repair gangs began to clean up the wreckage. The
cause of the runaway could not be stated by officials.
The Crabb building was partly destroyed in a similar accident about 11 years
ago.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 10 March 1917
TROLLEY LINK TO BE CLOSED SOON
McKeesport and Brownsville Will be Connected Up by West Penn System
A complete trolley link between Brownsville and McKeesport, a distance of 80
miles through Irwin, Greensburg, Connellsville and Uniontown is a
possibility of the new future. Irwin council recently voted a franchise to
the McKeesport & Westmoreland Street Railways Company, now a part of the
West Penn system and the construction of only a small stretch of track will
connect this line with the West Penn tacks, now tapping Irwin some distance
away from the terminus of the McKeesport & Westmoreland tracks which end at
the borough limits.
If an agreement is entered into with the Herminie line, only a switch will
be necessary to connect up the West Penn with its new branch.
The distance from McKeesport to Irwin is 12 miles, from there to Greensburg
it is 13 miles and from Greensburg to Uniontown 38 miles. With the 17 miles
from Uniontown to Brownsville, this makes a total of 80 miles.
Connection of the Irwin and Greensburg lines into McKeesport has long been
desired by the West Penn, it is said.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 7 April 1917
CAR HITS FREIGHT
Does Not Stop at Martin Crossing and front End is Damaged
Car No. 707 of the West Penn Railways Company was damaged at Martin last
evening when it collided with a freight train. The car was in charge of a
Uniontown crew, with Motorman Rowe piloting it.
Martin is at the end of the line of the Phillips-Uniontown route. The car
was not able to slow up in time to avoid hitting the freight. None of the
passengers or the crew was injured.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 18 April 1917
RUN A SPECIAL
Women and Children Who Miss Car Have Extra to Themselves
When a women and several children and Will Carroll, all of Scottdale, missed
the last car for Greensburg one night about a week ago, the west Penn sent
out a special car to take them to their destinations. The story, which says
that the company was forced to send the car for them because the conductor
of the last Greensburg car had failed to announce his stops in the Scottdale
waiting room, was discredited by a West Penn official this morning.
The woman and children were standing on the opposite side of the street from
the waiting room, it seems and the conductor, entering the waiting room,
found it empty. The West Penn has made it a rule that conductors on last
cars shall announce their stops in the waiting room, but seeing no one
there, this conductor did not call. The woman, not realizing that this was
the Greensburg car, allowed it to pass on.
Carroll about that time came rushing along, trying to catch the same car.
He wanted to go home to Youngwood, but missed the car by a block. He found
out how the woman had missed the car, and immediately got in touch with the
West Penn officials, demanding that a special car be sent for them. Feeling
that accommodation should be furnished the woman and children, though they
had missed the car through no fault of the railway, a special car was sent
to Scottdale, and took them to Greensburg. Carroll also rode to Youngwood
on the special.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 18 May 1917
FEARING TROLLEY CARAH, GIRL JUMPS; IS BADLY INJURED
Escapes From Car That Backs Down Hill to Avoid Collision with Runaway
TROLLEYMEN ARE HEROES
Crew of 4 o’clock Greensburg Car Prevent excited Passengers From Jumping as
they Run Car Down Crawford Avenue; Motorman Hurt
One woman was badly injured and several others suffered minor bruises and
cuts yesterday afternoon at 4 o’clock when a car of the Westmoreland County
Railway Company, which had undergone repairs here, backed down the Crawford
Avenue hill from Cottage Avenue and crashed into the West Penn’s Greensburg
car just above the waiting room
W. J. Carroll, motorman and H. E. Kermerer, conductor, on the West Penn car,
proved the heroes of the occasion. Their car had been following the
Westmoreland County car up the grade, and when Carroll saw that control of
it had been lost, he immediately began to back away.
The two cars bumped together once, but Carroll pulled away again and kept
ahead to the West Penn waiting room where he was forced to slow down because
of traffic. There the big crash came. The ends of both cars were caved in
and it was some time before they could be pulled apart.
Conductor Kermerer, while the car was drifting down the hill, closed the
back doors and with men who were passengers, prevented frightened women from
jumping off. Miss Mildred McLaughlin, however, got to the front platform,
where the motorman could not prevent her from jumping. Just as the car
passed the Elks home, she leaped from the platform to the street. She
suffered a fracture of the skull and a broken collar bone, and was removed
to the Cottage State Hospital in a serious condition. Miss McLaughlin is 22
years old, of Everson, and is a teacher in the South Connellsville schools.
A Miss Tannehill was prevented by the conductor from following Miss
McLaughlin.
Al Durie, motorman on the runaway car, received cuts about the face and
hands. He had gone to the rear to see if there was any way to check the
car, and was there when the ca4rash came. A man on the West Penn car was
slightly cut by the flying glass.
The Westmoreland County Railway car had been brought to this city several
weeks ago for repairs. The company, which operates between Derry and
Latrobe, has its cars overhauled at the West Penn shops here. What made the
wheels lock and the car begin to slide back has not been ascertained. Both
power and control of brakes were lost, however, and Motorman Durie could do
nothing to prevent the drift. The car was of the old type, was equipped
with air brakes, and it is said the air pressure was good. The West Penn
car was No. 606. Both cars were badly damaged in the smashup.
As the cars came drifting down the hill, police were able to stop all
traffic at Brimstone Corner, and one automobile truck driver dashed ahead,
warning everyone out of the road. The driver had seized the situation at a
glance, and wanted to do all possible to prevent accidents.
A negro, John Sanders, 33 years old, was also injured, his ankle having been
sprained in jumping. Several show girls with a Dunbar carnival had narrow
escapes.
The rush for the rear of the car was halted, it is said, by several level
headed men who shut the door on those who thought control of the car had
been lost and wanted to get out. Among the passengers were W. H. Friend,
Dr. A. J. Colborn, Motorman Charles King, who was going to his home near
Scottdale, and W. S. Stimmell. The car was not crowded. Had it been an
hour later, a much larger number of people would have been riding.
After the crash, a Mrs. Gouch, a Westmoreland County woman who was a
passenger on the car, fainted. She was taken into the crew room of the West
Penn building a given treatment by a physician there.
Miss McLaughlin was first taken into R. F. Lytle’s drugstore. When she
leaped she dropped her pocketbook and papers. The pocketbook was returned
to her by Mrs. Harvey Hoover. Miss McLaughlin, well known in Everson, is a
doughtier of Mr. And Mrs. William McLaughlin.
Miss McLaughlin, it was declared at the hospital this morning, was in a
serious condition, and nothing could be told as yet concerning her chances
for recovery. She has been unconscious at least half the time since her
removal to the hospital.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 8 August 1917
11 SPECIAL CARS CARRY PICKNICKERS TO OAKFORD PARK
First Contingent of West Penn Employees Has Its Annual Outing Today
Eleven cars took more than a thousand from here to the twelfth annual outing
of the West Penn Railways and Power Company employees at Oakford Park today.
Three of the 11 cars carried Uniontown employees. Eight were loaded here.
The early men are picnicking today and next Tuesday, August 14, will be the
outing day for the lates. The office forces have been split up, those not
going today to be relieved for the next outing. Employees from all over the
West Penn system are attending.
Though the day seemed to be an ideal one early in the morning the sky was
clouded about noon and rain threatened. The afternoon was filled with a
line of sports, for which many prizes were offered. The same list of events
will be held next Tuesday.
One of the big features of the day was a drawing contest, which did not come
off until after the other events had been staged. On the cars everyone was
supplied with a numbered tag, and the lucky one drawn at the park won the
prize.
There was evidence that there would be many contenders for he prize to be
awarded the largest family present. A 50-pound sack of flour was the prize.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 10 September 1917
START WORK ON ROAD
Paving of Highway Through Leisenring No. 3 is Begun
Work has been started on the paving of the dirt road through Leisenring No.
3 on the main line from Connellsville to Uniontown. This contract was
awarded last year by the county commissioners but work was not begun until
about a week ago. Bricks are on the ground and part of the concrete curb
has been poured.
Week-end autoists are compelled to detour through a back alley in Leisenring
No. 2. They came over the detour convinced of tone thing – every family
along that alley has one or more pigs. Pig stys are not especially nice
smelling places, but their maintenance materially reduces the cost of living
in these piping days of the high cost of everything.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 6 October 1917
SIX KILLED, THREE INJURED WHEN AUTOMIBILE IS STRUCK BY STREET CAR AT JUNIATA
Mrs. Frank Thorpe, Four Children and a Colored Girl Victims; All of Bitner
NINE PASSENGERS IN FORD
Party on way to Bitner Home from Visit to Relative Above Dunbar; Son Driving
Machine fails to See Trolley Until it is Almost Upon Him.
Six persons – Mrs. Frank Thorpe and her four children and Nellie Washington,
a colored girl – were instantly killed and three others, two of them members
of the Thorpe family, where injured when a West Penn street car struck the
Ford touring car in which the nine were riding at the Juniata road crossing
about 4.45 o’clock last evening.
The automobile reached the crossing just as the 4.15 Phillips car from
Connellsville came along. The machine was demolished and parts of it
carried up the track for a considerable distance. Its occupants were
mangled beneath the wheels of the electric car, the bodies of the victims
being horribly mutilated.
THE DEAD
Mrs. Rachel Thorpe, 35 years old, wife of Frank Thorpe of Bitner, mother of
four of the dead
Lena Thorpe, 18 years old
Russell Thorpe, 16 years old
Willard Thorpe, nine years old
Philip Thorpe, five years old
Nellie Washington, 16 years old of Dunbar
THE INJURED
Joseph Thorpe, 13 years old, lacerations of scalp and left leg, at Cottage
State Hospital
James Thorpe, 20 years old, of Republic, driver of car, lacerations about
head and face, at fathers home in Bitner
Sam Washington, 17 years old, colored of Dunbar, lacerations of scalp, face,
hands and legs, at Cottage State hospital
The bodies of he dead were brought to the parlors of J. E. Sims’ undertaking
establishment here. Two of the injured were brought to the Cottage State
hospital, the third being taken to the home of the father of the family,
Frank Thorpe, at Bitner
Following the collision, it is said the (?????) went on from the road,
known as ??????? to the switch at Juniata, returning then to the scene of
the accident. In the meantime, an autoist had started to Connellsville with
Joseph Thorpe and Sam Washington, the injured, James Thorpe, the third
injured man, having disappeared from the scene. At Leisenring No. 1, the
driver had a blowout, but just at this time the car carrying the dead bodies
came up and the injured were transferred to it.
News of the accident had preceded the car here, and a big crowd was waiting
at the station, but the morbidly curious were disappointed for the bodies
were transferred to the ????? wagons and the injured men to the ambulance
at the car barns on the West Side.
The Thorpe family was on its way home from a day spent in the mountains.
Frank Thorpe, the father, had not accompanied them because he had to work.
He is employed as carpenter. Foreman at the Bitner works of the H. C. Frick
Coke company. E formerly held a similar position at Fairbanks, and at one
time lived with his family at Dunbar, where he is well known.
Young Thorpe, who was engaged as a taxi driver by an owner at Republic, had
borrowed the car for the day to take the family to visit Mrs. Sarah Bosley,
a relative living above Dunbar. The Washingtons, who had known the family
for years, were invited to go along. Thorpe had intended to leave his
mother, sisters and brothers at their home and take the other two to
Uniontown on his way back to Republic.
The car approaches the Dogtown crossing on a down grade, then after passing
the road, mounts a hill. The road itself rises on each side of the tracks,
the West Penn having raided its tracks four feet above the ordinary level.
Thorpe’s view of the coming car was obscured by the little bank of earth at
the side of the road. As he mounted the incline leading to the crossing, he
exclaimed, “My God, here comes the car,” according to the story which he
told his father, who in turn related it to Coroner S. H. Baum last night.
It was too late to stop the machine then, and he tried to get across ahead
of the car. The front track was safely across when the trolley came along.
In charge of the car, which left Connellsville at 4.15, was Conductor
Freeman G. Pyle, with Wendell Carroll as motorman.
The Ford was struck with great force and a large portion of the wreckage was
thrown into a ditch at the right side of the tracks, and from under this
wreckage, the crowd which had quickly gathered, saw Sam Washington crawl.
The negro is least hurt of any in the accident. James Thorpe, the driver,
disappeared for a time, having been seen running over the hill holding his
head. Later he returned to the scene of the accident and was taken to his
father’s home at Bitner by a passing automobile.
There he told Mr. Thorpe the story of the accident. The father, dazed and
bewildered, came at once to Connellsville and told his son’s story to
Coroner Beam, who came down early from Uniontown. “My son always was a good
driver,” he said, “ and I am sure he wasn’t going any too fast. He has been
very good and comes up from Republic every once in a while and takes the
whole family out for a drive.” Every member of Mr. Thorpe’s family was
included in the tragic accident
All of the nine occupants of the Ford were thrown out and a majority of
there were ground under the wheels of the car. The body of Mrs. Thorpe was
horribly mangled so that it was almost impossible to identify her. Lana
Thorpe’s face was also crushed, and one of he other children had a leg off.
James Thorpe, the driver, disappeared again during the night, when his
father had left to come to Connellsville. Young Thorpe was not located
until this morning, when he was found in a boarding house at Thompson No. 2.
How he escaped death is a problem. Sam Washington, who was saved, was
holding Joseph Thorpe on his lap when the crash came. The Thorpe boy was at
first reported to have a fractured skull, but its not now considered in a
serious condition. The negro remembers nothing of the accident. “All I
remember,” he said last night, “is being told to get into the ambulance.
Motorman Carroll says that he thought the Ford was going to get safely
across the track, but that it seemed to stall for a moment just before the
crash. Just as the back wheels were in the center of the track, the engine
is believed to have stopped. Thorpe had been running down a hill until he
hit the little grade across the track, and a sudden throwing on of gas to
take this hill may have caused the engine to stall.
The car was coming at a pretty good clip, naturally, down the grade. Just
how fast he was running, Motorman Carroll has not yet reported.
The body of Nellie Washington was removed this afternoon by Funeral Director
Sims to the Washington home, house no. 53 near Furnace. Funeral Wednesday
morning at 10 o’clock with interment in Mount Auburn cemetery.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 13 October 1917
CORONER’S JURY FIXES NO BLAME FOR AUTO WRECK
Accidental death Verdict in Inquest Into deaths of Six Victims
FEW NEW FACTS REVEALED
Street Car Was Running at its Usual Speed of 30 Miles an Hour, Motorman
Declares; Young Thorpe Says He Did Not See the trolley at All
A coroner’s jury yesterday afternoon rendered a verdict of accidental death
in the cases of Mrs. Frank Thorpe, her four children and Nellie Washington,
colored, killed last Sunday afternoon when the ford car in which they were
riding was struck by a West Penn Street car at the Dogtown crossing near
Juniata. The complete verdict was that the death of these people had been
“caused by the automobile in which they were riding being struck by a West
Penn street car at the Dogtown crossing near Juniata. We find the cause to
have been accidental.”
Few new facts were developed at the inquest, which was held at J. E. Sims’
undertaking establishment. James Thorpe, it was learned, is not the son but
the stepson of Frank Thorpe. His real name is Hastings, but he has adopted
the name of Thorpe. The other children in the accident were all Thorpe
children. James, who was during the car, testified that he had not seen the
trolley at all until after the accident, when he had crawled from the
wreckage. It was his mother, he said, who exclaimed, “My God, there’s a
car.”
Young Thorpe told a moving story of the tragic trip, explaining how he had
crawled from the wreckage, picked up one of his dead brothers, who, he said,
“had a hole in his head,” listened in vain for the beating of his heart, and
then had dashed off over the hill to get away from the terrible scene.
“I looked both ways for the car,” he said, “but didn’t see it. I never saw
the car at all until I crawled out from under the ford. I knew what I was
doing then. I picked up the first child I saw lying there. He had a hole
in his head. I listened to his heart. He was dead. I looked at the
others. They were all dead. My mother was lying perhaps 100 feet from the
crossing. The first thing I wanted to do was to get away from there.”
Motorman Wendell Carroll told the jury he had been a motorman for six or
seven months, the last three of them on the Phillips run. The trolley was
no. 69 of the air brake type. He left Connellsville on the run Sunday
afternoon 10 minutes late, and had not made up more than a minute of the
time when he reached the Dogtown crossing at 4:50. No passengers wanting to
alight at the crossing he came down the grade at the usual speed, about 30
miles an hour, he said. He rang is warning bell steadily for from 200 to
300 feet of the crossing until the crash, he said. The auto could not be
seen, because of a bank of shrubbery. The Ford was within 40 or 50 feet of
the crossing and the trolley within 90 or 100 feet of it, when Carroll first
saw the machine.
“I turned my head sidewise just before the crash came, to avoid the flying
glass which usually accompanies such an accident,” he said, “but I had the
auto in view for at least 40 feet. The machine seemed to decrease in speed,
as if the brakes had been applied or the engine had stopped. The car almost
stopped on the crossing. I applied the brakes and made every reasonable
effort to avoid an accident. The front wheels of the automobile had almost
reached the right hand rail when the crash came. I brought the car to a
stop about 300 feet from the crossing. I kept the brake on but didn’t
release the air,” Carroll has had no other fatal accidents in his career as
a motorman.
“I heard no street car bell as came along. I could not see the car. I was
looking to the left, toward Uniontown when the crash came. I had looked
before toward the right, to Connellsville, and seen nothing. I didn’t stop
at the crossing.: He was familiar with the road, he said.
Freeman Pyle, conductor of the car, said he had been in West Penn service
for 14 years. He corroborated Carroll’s statement about the car running
down the grade at the usual speed. “There is a danger sign and a wooden,
crossed “stop, look and listen” sign at the crossing” he said. James Thorpe
later made this same statement.
James Thorpe, drive of the Ford on the fatal ride, said that he was either
20 or 21 years old, not certain which, and that he owned the machine and ran
it as a taxi in Republic. The top was up but there were no curtains on the
car, he said. Unusually on good roads, he said, he drove his car at 18 or
20 miles an hour. Approaching the crossing he was going at nine or ten and
when he threw in low gear to get up the slight grade, leading to the tracks,
he slackened to about eight miles an hour.
“Were you talking with others in the car – all cutting up?” Coroner S. H.
Baum asked him.
“No,” was the reply. “I had the toothache and did not feel like talking.
Those in the back seat may have been talking, but there was no conversation
in the front seat, he continued.
A statement from Sam Washington, colored, now lying injured at the Cottage
State hospital, was read. Thorpe didn’t run fast all day, it says. “I
didn’t know we were approaching the crossing.” Washington writes, and he it
is that credits Mrs. Thorpe with seeing the car and making an exclamation.
Washington was holding little Joseph Thorpe on his lap in the seat next the
drive. All the other occupants were on the rear seat, and none on the
running board.
The jury was made up of W. A. Bishop, E. L. Marietta, William McCormick, A.
B. Hood, J. G. Fenton and George Marietta. Present at the inquest were T.
B. Donnelly and R. J. Ryan, west Penn claim agents; L. B. Brownfield,
counsel for the West Penn, and H. K. MacQuarrie, counsel for the Thorpes.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 17 December 1917
WEST PENN CAR HITS TUNNEL NEAR SCOTTDALE; NEARLY SCORE OF PASSENGERS ARE
INJURED
Miss Edna Hockenberry, a Nurse, in Serious Condition at Mt. Pleasant
Hospital
WRECKED TROLLEY IGNITES
Breaks Squarely in Two as It Crashes Against Stone Abutment and Broken Wire
Sets It on Fire; Six of the Injured in Mount Pleasant Hospital
One woman was perhaps fatally injured, five others so badly hurt that they
had to be removed to the Mount Pleasant Memorial hospital, and about 10 or
12 others bruised and cut last evening about 8:45 when a West Penn street
car crashed against the mouth of a tunnel between Ruffsdale and Tarr, six
miles west of Scottdale, was broken in two and was later set afire when a
broken trolley wire fell into the wreckage.
THE INJURED
Miss Edna Hockenberry, 22 years old, of Broadway, Scottdale, internally
injured and believed to have fractured skull; unconscious, in serious
condition
Edward Hunsberger, 34 years old, of Ruffsdale; contusions of the head and
body and bad bruises
Miss Nellie Sherrow, 23 years old, of Ruffsdale, lacerations contusions,
several cuts on arm
Mrs. Samuel Brown, 31 years old, of York Run; lacerations and contusions of
head and face
Wanter McNelly, 25 years old, of Ruffsdale; lacerations of right arm and
head
Andrew Bulthorn, 38 years old, colored, of Greensburg, bad body bruises
The accident occurred with the brakes on the car refused to work. The car
left the tracks just at the entrance to the tunnel, over which run the
Pennsylvania railroad tracks. It swerved against the abutment, and broke
squarely in two, the pieces being divided just at the middle of the car. A
broken trolley wire then fell into the wreckage, setting it afire and
entirely destroying the car. This was not, however, until all the
passengers had been released from the car.
The car goes by the lower route to Greensburg. It arrives at Greensburg in
time for its passengers to catch a 10 o’clock train. It is due to leave
Scottdale at 9.25, but was about ten minutes late last night.
Miss Hockenberry was seated almost directly in the middle of the car when
the accident came. She is a nurse in training at the Columbia Hospital,
Wilkinsburg. Yesterday was her half holiday, and she had been visiting her
mother, Mrs. S. K. Hockenberry of Broadway, Scottdale. She intended to take
the 10 o’clock train at Greensburg and return to Wilkinsburg. The doctors
are not sure that she has a fractured skull, but fear that such is the case.
Miss Hockenberry has not been conscious since the accident.
Walter McNelly, who suffered lacerations of arm and head, is a Baltimore &
Ohio fireman.
Edward Hunsberger, who was very severely bruised, is hurt more badly than
any of the others except Miss Hockenberry.
Just how many people were on the wrecked car could not be learned. Many of
them, injured only slightly, were given first aid treatment by Dr. J. W.
Shelar of Mount Pleasant, who rushed to the scene of the accident, while
Drs. W. A. March and F. L. March made ready to receive the injured at the
hospital.
A shortage of doctors in Scottdale and Everson, brought about by the medical
men’s enlistment for war service, made it necessary to go all the way to
Mount Pleasant for aid.
Mrs. Samuel Brown is the wife of the superintendent of the York Run plant of
the H. C. Frick Coke company and a sister-in-law of Mrs. W. H. Clingerman of
Scottdale. She had been visiting relatives in Ruffsdale and was on her way
home. She was cut by flying glass
The car was in charge of a Connellsville crew, Charles Ritenour and Sam
Fletcher.
CONNELLSVILLE COURIER, 31 December 1917
WEST PENN CAR BURNED UP; PASSENGERS ARE STRANDED AT PENNVILLE TWO HOURS
Comes in Contact with Broken Trolley Wire, and Short Circuit fi Formed
POWER IS OFF FOR TIME
Passengers on the last car from Scottdale to Connellsville were stranded at
Pennsville for two hours yesterday morning when they had to abandon the
street car in which they were riding after it caught fire from a broken
trolley wire. The car is the second burned within three weeks, a 600 type
being completely destroyed recently at Tarr. The car burned yesterday a was
a 200 type in charge of a local crew. Motorman Wendell Carroll and
Conductor C. E. Bryner.
The car caught fire when it encountered a broken trolley wire at the
Pennsville stop. A short circuit was formed by the broken wire, setting the
car on fire. Passengers were gotten out of the car before the fire had
gained much headway. It did not take long for the fire to completely burn
the car up.
Passengers who had been returning to the homes here on the car were without
shelter but they secured refuge in a nearby house. It was 3 o’clock before
a relief car brought them into the city.
Workmen wee immediately called out and put to work clearing away the debris
and repairing the broken wire. In order to repair the trolley line the
power over the entire system had to be shut off. The current was not turned
off in time to save the car, however, nothing remaining of it expect the
trucks.
The workmen who were called out early in the morning to get the line
repaired and the tracks cleared were breakfasted here later on.
_________________________________________________________________________
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