Ninth Avenue derailment

Context

Trains of the Ninth Avenue and Sixth Avenue elevated lines shared the same track above West 53rd Street, where the Sixth Avenue line branched off. Downtown-bound trains displayed disks indicating to the towerman at the junction whether he should set the switch for the train to enter the curve or proceed straight on to the 50th Street station.

Accident

During the morning rush hour on September 11, 1905, a Ninth Avenue train following a Sixth Avenue train was mistakenly switched onto the curve. The train was traveling at 30 mph when it entered the sharp curve, for which 9 mph was the company-mandated limit.{{refn|group=note|The accountReed says the car somersaulted in the air and also that the front end was on the ground; the account in Railway and Locomotive Engineering is that it "turned completely over sidewise" but that it was the rear end that fell to the street.

The roof was torn off and some passengers were crushed under the car by a falling truck and motor equipment from the third car, which came to rest hanging off the edge of the trestle against the front of an apartment building, into which some passengers were able to escape through a window. The rest of the train also derailed but continued down the trestle along Ninth Avenue. The death toll was 13, and 48 serious injuries in the second car. A police officer who had been standing in the street was also injured.

Aftermath

On September 23, the report of the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners laid most of the blame for the accident on motorman Kelly, but some on the towerman, Cornelius Jackson, who was said to have been away from his post at the time of the accident.

Kelly claimed the train had been displaying the correct disks for Ninth Avenue; Jackson claimed it had not. The train's conductor, J.W. Johnson, who had the job of setting the disks on the train, backed Kelly, and so did the company, since station guards had identified the train as Ninth Avenue at every stop it had made before the accident.

However, the coroner's jury found that Kelly should have seen that the signal indicated the switch was set for Sixth Avenue, and that he was driving recklessly fast.

Kelly could not back onto the other tracks this time because of his speed, which he explained had been due to the guards at 59th Street having called out 42nd Street as the next stop. Kelly was making up lost time on what he thought would be a straightaway to 42nd Street, not realizing until it was too late that the switch had actually been set for the curve to Sixth Avenue.

Jackson was convicted of second degree manslaughter but his conviction was later overturned. He was convicted of manslaughter in the second degree and was sentenced to 18 to 30 months in prison.

Notes

References

Sources

References

1. . (). ["The Ninth Avenue Elevated Train Crash Of 1905"](http://stuffnobodycaresabout.com/2014/09/10/ninth-avenue-elevated-train-crash-1905/).
2. (September 16, 1905). "Catastrophe on New York 'L'– Worst Accident in its History – Blunder As To Signals – 12 Killed, 42 Badly Hurt by Fall of Car From Structure – Third Rail Adds to Terror". The Summary.
3. Walsh, Kevin. (December 1999). "Remnants of the Ninth Avenue El".
4. (October 1905). "The New York Elevated Railroad Disaster". Angus Sinclair Co..
5. (November 1905). "The World for a Month".
6. (1905-06-21). "Car Plunges from Elevated (The casualty list)". The New York Times.
7. (September 13, 1905). "Switch Set Wrong By Design, Kelly Says". The New York Times.
8. (June 30, 1907). "Paul Kelly Arrested". The New York Times.