The New York Times/1916/11/22/Fireman and Team Plunge into R. R. Cut
FIREMAN AND TEAM PLUNGE INTO R.R. CUT
N. Y. Central Halted by Accident Which Kills Horses and Mortally Hurts Driver.
NEARLY HIT CROWDED TRAIN
Taylor Faced Death, but Stuck to His Seat—Wrecking Crew Clears Tracks.
Although his plunging horses were heading straight for the New York Central cut, Louis T. Taylor, a young fireman, driving a tender responding to an alarm, kept both his seat and his head last night and fell with team and vehicle twenty-five feet down on the tracks at 184th Street and Park Avenue, the Bronx. Both horses were killed, and he wos mortally injured.
The accident caused a complete shut down of traffic on the outbound tracks and thousands of commuters were unable to board their regular trains when they arrived in the Grand Central Terminal. Many took the subway and elevated to Webster Avenue and East 198th Street, where they boarded trolleys running through Westchester County.
Shortly before 6 o’clock, in response to an alarm at East 183d Street and Washington Avenue, Engine 88, followed by the tender, left the firehouse at Belmont Avenue, between 183d and 184th Streets, and proceeded west on 183d Street. The tender, with Firemen Edward Reith and Joseph Laracy on the rear, did not follow the engine, but turned onto Washington Avenue. The firemen on the rear shouted to Taylor that he was taking the wrong direction and were told to jump, as the collar on one of the horses had broken and Taylor had lost control of them.
The men did not jump then, and it was not until the horses headed straight for the five-foot railing at the edge of the New York Central cut that they leaped. With Taylor sticking to his seat until it was too late, the team smashed into the fencing, bringing down fifteen feet of it, and the whole mass went over the side.
Taylor’s comrades had meanwhile notified Battalion Chief Barrett, and with most of his men the Chief hastened to the scene. At the bottom of the cut, sprawled across the railroad tracks, lay the horses and the tender and the firemen scrambled down the stone sides expecting to find Taylor dead beneath the wreckage.
The force of the impact against the iron guard rail had burst the straps which held Taylor to his seat and he had been flung clear of the debris and landed on the south-bound tracks. He was picked up unconscious and Dr. McGovern of Fordham Hospital rushed him there suffering from several broken ribs, fractured left leg, and internal injuries.
A minute before the tender took the plunge a local train, crowded with commuters bound for New Rochelle and intermediate points, pulled out of the 183d Street Station, and the last car had just cleared the tracks when the tender fell.
Inspector Walsh and Lieutenant Meehan arrived in charge of the reserves from the Bronx Park and Tremont Stations and held in check a crowd of 8,000 homegoers. The yardmaster at the Grand Central Terminal was notified of the accident and he ordered all trains held. Several of the locals were stalled at points between the terminal and the scene of the accident. A wrecking crew from High Bridge cleared the tracks after an hour’s work.
While Battalion Chief Barrett and his men were busy in the cut, Acting Captain John McMahon, in charge of Engine Company 88, proceeded to the fire, which was in a two-story barn at 464 East 183d Street. The blaze was out when they arrived.