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A passenger who was riding in the front vestibule of the first car had also sighted 416. She ran back into the passenger area before the engineer left his compartment and was about halfway down the aisle of the car when impact occurred.
The collision. The leading coupler of the first car of train 720 was broken off by the impact, and the car overrode the underframe of the rear car of 416. The first car of 720 then sheared off the collision posts on the rear car of 416, veered slightly to the right, and moved through the passenger section. (See Figure 2.) The lead truck on 720's first car was thrown from under the car and came to rest along the east side of the track. The rear truck was derailed and came to rest against the rear truck of the Highliner car.
The wreckage from the impact sideswiped the last car of train 718, which was passing by on track 4. Passengers in that car heard a noise like an explosion, saw flying glass and dust, and felt their car rock from the impact of the spreading debris. The car, however, did not derail.
Train 718. After having arrived too late to transfer passengers with train 416, train 718, which consisted of eight "old" cars, had departed the 53d Street station for Roosevelt Road. Although the train had no speedometer, the engineer estimated that the train reached a top speed of 60 to 65 m.p.h. in the vicinity of 45th Street. The train maintained this speed until it reached 23d Street, where braking was necessary in order to comply with a 25-m.p.h. speed restriction.
Somewhere between 39th and 35th Streets, train 720 caught up with and began to pass 718. The two trains then ran side by side for 1 or 2 minutes. The first car of 720 passed the fourth car of 718 but did not reach the second car when 720 started to drop back, in the vicinity of 31st Street. At that point, several passengers on 718 noticed that the engineer of 720 appeared to be alert and attentive to his duties.
As 720 dropped back, the collector in the sixth car of 718 noticed sparks coming from the wheels of 720. The engineer of 718 saw the last car of 416 at the north end of the platform as he passed 27th Street; other passengers on the train saw the rear of 416 as 720 dropped back. The passengers heard 720's whistle and sensed that a collision was imminent.
