| Show TERRIBLE ACOIDE11T1 A Train Goes Throughan Open Drawbridge WITH FEARFULLY FATAL RESULT y At Webster Street Oablijgd The Number of Dead ami Their NthsThe Panic Stricken Public SAN FRANCISCO May 10One of the most horrible railway accidents ever known in California Cali-fornia occurred at 140 oclock this afternoon when it local train connecting nt Oakland with the ferry boats from San Francisco went through the open drawbridge over San Antonio t creek at Webster street Oakland A yacht had just passed through the draw when the train appeared going in the direction of Alameda The drawbridge keeper endeavored to close thebridge but was too late and the engine with the tender and first car which was filled with passengers plunged Into the estuary Engineer Sam Dunn and Fireman OBrien went down with the engine The former when he saw that the bridge did not close reversed the lever but the momentum ot the engine was too great to be stopped in time The weight of the engine and first car broke the couplings and left the other two cars of the train standing on the track The second car ran about a third of the way across the bridge and stopped but the jar was sufficient to break open the front of the car and many of the passengers pas-sengers were thrown Into the water The first car which had fallen with the engine to the bottom of the muddy esturay soon rose and such of the passengers as had escaped there from were picked up by yachts and small boats which gathered at the scene The train men and the rest of the passengers went to aid the work of rescue and when a wrecking train arrived from Oakland the car was drawn into shallow water and small boats began to drag the creek for bodies The top of the passenger conche was cut open as soon as it was raised above the water and the work of removing bodies commenced thirteen being taken out in quick succession At the morgue the bodies were laid out as soon as received to await identification and heartrending scenes were witnessed as friends came forward to claim their dead The list of identified are as follows Martin Kelly Oakland A F AustIn San Francisco Miss Florence Austin Mrs Bryan OConnor San Francisco J B Irwin Oakland E R Robinson San Francisco Captain John Dwyer Sacramento Mr Williams San Francisco II W Auld colored Honolulu the two Misses Kienon San Francisco a Japanese boy supposed sup-posed to beH Malerta San Francisco The engineer and fireman both escaped The experience ex-perience of the passengers hi the first cocoa as related by those who fortunately escaped were horrifying in tno extreme F F Fmley of Francisco said I was on the first seat facing the engine Just as we approached draw bridge it seemed to me that the draw was open and a fearful accident was inevitable Just then a man leaped from the engine into the water and then came a crash The horrible crushing of timbers and the snapping of heavy ironwork followed and at once constrenation prevailed In the car The next thing I knew the car wa in the water and i found myself gropelng for the door which I fortunately reached when that end of the car rose out of water and quite a number of people escaped in this manner man-ner principally women and children The car was about twothirds full when we left the wharf and I should judge there were at least twentyfive to thirty people in There was a fearful outcry when the car began to fill but this was almost immediately hushed in one long final wall of dispare George I Hawleyof Oakland said there were about forty people including children in the car Conductor Perath said the first car was a combination When the disaster occurred ho was in the rear car and had as much as he could do for a few moments to attend to the passengers in the car some of whom were in a state of frenzy He then went forward and locked down on the scene of death He noticed at least half a dozen men swim out but not any women or children He is not sure about the number of people in the coach James Dunlap the bridge tender had nothing noth-ing to say further than that he had opened the bridge for a yacht and was just closing it when the Train came along Several of the passengers passen-gers who went down but were rescued sustained sus-tained painful injuries The frame of the car has been raised and the bed of the creek thcr oughly explored and it is believed there are no more bodies in the wreck Conservative estimates esti-mates this evening place the number people on the car at about thirty and it is believed the thirteen bodies recovered comprise the list of dead Thousands of people rushed to the scene of the disaster and the streets leading to the bridge are crowded by hurrying men women and children The wildest rumors of the extent of the loss of life were circulated and many people went across from San Francisco to look for friends When news of the disaster reached Mountain View cemetery where hundreds of Oakland people were decorating graves a panic was created and men women and children rushed into the town leaving all their floral tributes behind them The engineer and fireman disappeared right after the accident andhave not yet been found so that taeir views of the accident are not obtainable ob-tainable The bridge tender tonight maintains that he had the red danger flag up Trains approach ap-proach the bridge around a curve and it Is possible pos-sible that the engineer did not seethe flag |
