[PRCo] Motorman not sharp enough to cut through fog....

[Fred Schneider]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fQAdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZY4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=1244%2C2128691
 

Pittsburgh Press, January 8, 1935, Page 1

 TROLLEY RUNS WILD IN SMOG;

FIVE INJURED

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East Pittsburgh Street Car Jumps Tracks.  Careens Into Auto Tunnel

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TRAFFIC IS BLOCKED

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Heavy Fog Also Blamed for Injury to Two on Ohio Boulevard

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                                                                                                       Hits Pole, Careens to Stop

   Speeding through one of the worst fogs in years, a city-bound Homestead – East Pittsburgh street car jumped the tracks at Irvine Street – Greenfield Avenue curve early today and plunged forward into Greenfield Avenue tunnel’s auto lane.

    Five passengers were injured and taken to Montefiore Hospital.

    The operator, William H. Sharp, 47, of 5402 Second Avenue, told police he became confused in the fog and did not know he had reached the curve – where the tracks swing sharply as Irvine Street enters Greenfield Avenue – until it was too late to check his speed.

   The car left the tracks on a tangent to the streetcar and auto tunnels under the B&O Railroad overhead bridge paralleling Second Avenue.

 Hits Pole, Careens to Stop

   In front of the auto tunnel’s town-bound lane, it veered and turned in scraping the curbing and lurching toward the concrete sidewalls.

    It seemed certain the car was going to plow through to fog-covered Second Avenue but, just inside the tunnel, it struck a light pole and careened to a stop.

    Emergency cars of the Pittsburgh Railways Company and patrol wagons from the Oakland Station to the injured to the hospital.  They are: 

   Russell Kramer 29, of 631 Eighth Ave., West Homestead; bruised on left wrist.

   Frank B. Dever, 49, of 613 Corey Avenue, Braddock; sprained back.

   Robert Coyle, 43, of 4 Melancthon Street; laceration over right eye.

   Mary Clowney, 28, of 479 ½ West Seventh Ave., Homestead; bruises and shock.

   Mrs. Nellie Thompson, 45, of 203 Eighth Avenue, West Ho0mestead; bruises and shock.

 Trolley Traffic Tied Up

   The car left the tracks at 5:30 a.m.  Ten minutes later a McKeesport-Second Avenue car came along Irvine Street and only a short distance from the wreck, dropped its safety guard, automatically stopping the car.     It tied up traffic – most early shop and mill workers – for almost an hour until it could be jacked up and its guard replaced.

    The fog, which gathered shortly before midnight and lasted far into the morning, was one of the heaviest in years, particularly in the outlaying districts.

    Motorists were forced to drive at a snail’s pace, even after sun-up, charting their direction from curbings or boulevard and highway center lines.

 Autoists Abandon Cars

   Many drivers abandoned their cars last night, putting them in nearby garages or leaving them at the curb and taking streetcars to their homes.   A great number also refused to use their cars this morning, doubling the usual overcrowding of streetcars on some lines.

    Along Panther Hollow Road at the Bowling Green one of the most hazardous roads in Schenley Park on slippery and foggy nights, scores of cars were abandoned.   Lacking a curbing along which to guide their cars, motorists were helpless.

    The fog was not as dense in the downtown section as it was in the suburbs and adjacent territory.

    All airplane schedules to Pittsburgh were suspended last night as the fog, then reaching from the Alleghenies to the Atlantic, spread westward.  No planes were in the air today but airline officials had hopes service would be restored late this afternoon when they expect clearer weather.

    Rain and colder weather this afternoon and tonight were expected to reduce tomorrow’s fog hazards.  Below freezing temperatures were forecase by tomorrow night.

 

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