Record Wrecked

One day last week American Brake Shoe & Foundry Co. advertised the fact of which U. S. railroads have lately been most proud: Not one passenger lost his life as the result of a train accident in

1935 (TIME, Jan. 20). Splashing full-page displays in many a newspaper, the company blazoned: TRIBUTE TO A PERFECT RECORD OF THE RAILROADS. Next day the record for 1936 was spoiled when The Williamsporter, crack Reading Railway System Express, jumped the track near Sunbury, Pa., killed one passenger.

Rounding a curve just before taking a bridge across the Susquehanna River the six-car train had come to a broken rail, careened through the guard rail, spilled sideways across an abandoned canal bed, finally halted with the engine half submerged in the icy river. As the locomotive boiler exploded, the ties on the roadbed burst into flame from friction.

Searchers found the engineer dead, the fireman dying. A broken neck killed a young doctor from Brooklyn. Thirty-one other passengers were hospitalized. Two were found so critically hurt that they may die.

On Sept. 2, 1913, the New York, New Haven & Hartford's crack White Mountain Express telescoped into the rear of its Bar Harbor Express near Wallingford, Conn., bringing death to 21, injuries to 50, much criticism to the railroad. To Miss Jean Annett of Red Bank, N. J.. whose neck had been broken and whose life had been despaired of, the company gave $10,000 cash, promised her $700 a month for life. Last week the New Haven, deep in Section 77-B reorganization, asked the courts to relieve it of further obligation to Miss Annett who, though confined to a wheel chair, remains alive and continues to collect. To date she has received $193,000.

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