Conditions were ripe for a wreck. That morning, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) had gone on strike. Short of motormen, a crew dispatcher named Edward Luciano was sent by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) to drive a train on the Brighton Beach Line.
His only experience in moving trains had been in a train yard. At the time, a motorman was supposed to receive 60 hours of training. Under these emergency conditions, how many hours was Luciano given? Only 2.
What's more, the Spanish Flu epidemic was raging. Luciano had caught it, but recovered. Three of his daughters did not. That morning, he buried the second of them.
The train he was driving consisted of 3 motor cars and 2 trailer cars, all made mostly of wood. He had to take it into a single-track tunnel, newly opened. It had a sharp reverse curve, designed to take Coney Island-bound trains around a new mainline, which was under construction. Before that, trains entered Prospect Park station through an older, straighter tunnel.
That reverse curve had a speed limit of 6 miles per hour. Luciano was going at least 30 MPH when he entered it, and had already overshot some stations. The trailing truck of the 1st car derailed, and the 2 cars behind it left the tracks completely, tearing off their roofs and their left-hand sides. The 1st and 4th cars only took minor damage, the 5th none at all. Luciano himself was not injured. But the people in the 2nd and 3rd cars never had a chance.
Mayor John Hylan had Luciano and BRT officials indicted for manslaughter. On the witness stand, Luciano said the train did not respond properly to his control. The BRT's report contradicted this, showing that the brakes were in good shape, and no attempt was made to slow the train.
The BRT was held liable for damages in the deaths of the passengers, but no one was convicted. Luciano quit his job, and became an architect, living until 1985. When interviewed by The New York Times for a 100th Anniversary article, his granddaughter, then 67 years old, said she never knew her grandfather had ever driven a train.
That reverse curve had a speed limit of 6 miles per hour. Luciano was going at least 30 MPH when he entered it, and had already overshot some stations. The trailing truck of the 1st car derailed, and the 2 cars behind it left the tracks completely, tearing off their roofs and their left-hand sides. The 1st and 4th cars only took minor damage, the 5th none at all. Luciano himself was not injured. But the people in the 2nd and 3rd cars never had a chance.
Mayor John Hylan had Luciano and BRT officials indicted for manslaughter. On the witness stand, Luciano said the train did not respond properly to his control. The BRT's report contradicted this, showing that the brakes were in good shape, and no attempt was made to slow the train.
The BRT was held liable for damages in the deaths of the passengers, but no one was convicted. Luciano quit his job, and became an architect, living until 1985. When interviewed by The New York Times for a 100th Anniversary article, his granddaughter, then 67 years old, said she never knew her grandfather had ever driven a train.
So deep was the name "Malbone Street" embedded in the minds of New Yorkers, the street's name was changed: It became Empire Boulevard. A small street named Malbone Street remains, between New York Avenue and Clove Road, 7 blocks east of the site in Crown Heights.
Today, the tunnel is part of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, an "S" train that connects the stations at Prospect Park in Flatbush (the B and Q lines) with Franklin Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant (the A and C lines). In 1974, there was another accident at the site: A switching mistake led to a derailment. No one was injured, though.
This disaster occurred just 4 months after the worst rail disaster in American history, the Dutchman's Curve wreck in Nashville on July 9, which killed 101.
Here are all the other fatal incidents in the history of the New York City rail system:
* September 11, 1905: The Ninth Avenue Elevated Line has a train derail at the intersection of 9th Avenue and 50th Street, where the building we now know as "the old Madison Square Garden" would be built 20 years later. Deaths: 13. The motorman was blamed, and served time for manslaughter. This was the 1st New York disaster to occur on a September 11.
* August 24, 1928: An express train derails at the Times Square station on the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line now the 1 Train. Deaths: 18. The towerman was blamed for letting the train through when he shouldn't have, and served time for manslaughter.
* August 27, 1938: A pair of IRT Seventh Avenue Line trains collide at the 116th Street station. Deaths: 2. I can't find any record of determination of culpability.
* September 11, 1905: The Ninth Avenue Elevated Line has a train derail at the intersection of 9th Avenue and 50th Street, where the building we now know as "the old Madison Square Garden" would be built 20 years later. Deaths: 13. The motorman was blamed, and served time for manslaughter. This was the 1st New York disaster to occur on a September 11.
* August 24, 1928: An express train derails at the Times Square station on the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line now the 1 Train. Deaths: 18. The towerman was blamed for letting the train through when he shouldn't have, and served time for manslaughter.
* August 27, 1938: A pair of IRT Seventh Avenue Line trains collide at the 116th Street station. Deaths: 2. I can't find any record of determination of culpability.
* September 26, 1957: An empty IRT train crashes into another empty train at the 230th Street station of the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line in The Bronx. The motorman was the only death. This was 2 days after the last game at Ebbets Field, and 3 days before the last Giants game at the Polo Grounds.
* May 20, 1970: A Brooklyn-bound GG train (pronounced "Double-G," and it would be a G today) crashes into another just west of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. Deaths: 2. There was plenty of blame to go around, but no one was convicted of any crime. This was 2 weeks after the Knicks won their 1st NBA Championship.
* August 1, 1970: A fire breaks out in a tunnel near Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan, on the 4 and 5 Train lines. A woman went back onto a train to retrieve her purse, but died of smoke inhalation.
* August 28, 1973: A concrete chunk falls from a ceiling duct in the Steinway tunnel near 1st Avenue, and crashes through the 1st car of a Queens-bound 7 train, killing a man. Over 1,000 passengers are stuck on the train, where the temperature reached 115 degrees. Given that heat, it's a wonder no one else died.
* July 3, 1981: The motorman is killed and 135 passengers were injured when an IRT train crashes into a stopped train in a Brooklyn tunnel.
* April 25, 1986: A motorman trying to turn an empty F train around near 179th Street station in Jamaica, Queens suffers a heart attack and dies, causing his train to derail. He was the only fatality, but, for him, it gave a whole new meaning to "the end of the line."
* August 28, 1991: A 4 Lexington Avenue Express derails entering 14th Street-Union Square. Deaths: 5. The motorman was drunk, and served time for manslaughter.
* June 5, 1995: A J train crashed into a stopped M train on the Williamsburg Bridge. Only the J train's motorman was killed. The crash was blamed on his fatigue.
* April 24, 2007: A 3 train hits a track worker setting up flagging lanterns, killing him. Just 5 days later...
* April 29, 2007: A Queens-bound G train hits 2 track workers at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station in downtown Brooklyn. One of them was killed, while the other was seriously injured, but recovered.
So, in the 118-year history of the New York Subway system, there have been 141 deaths, with 93 of them coming in 1 crash. Since 1938, there have been 17; since 1973, 10; since 2007, none.
As far as I can tell, no Subway passengers were killed as a result of damage done by the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, but it took 7 years to reopen the Cortland Street station on the 1 train. And, as far as I can tell, no Subway passengers were killed as a result of damage done when Hurricane Sandy struck on October 29, 2012, but repair work to several stations and the 14th Street tunnel under the East River took years.
*
November 1, 1918 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. There was no NFL, and college games were not played on Fridays. There was hardly any professional basketball. And the NHL season wouldn't begin for another month. So there were no scores on this historic day.
No comments:
Post a Comment