Train plunges off a bridge into Newark Bay in 1958 - NY Daily News

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Train plunges off a bridge into Newark Bay in 1958 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

TUesday, September 15,2015,8:56 AM

Second passenger coach is slowly raised from the bottom of Newark Bay. (CHARLES PAYNE)

(Originally published by the Daily News on September 16, 1958. This story was written by Maggie Bartel and Henry Lee.) In the glare of batteries of flood lights, one of the three sunken cars of a New Jersey Central commuter train that plunged off an open

drawbridge yesterday with an estimated 40 to 60 deaths was raised from the bottom of Newark Bay shortly after midnight this morning. Railroad officials identified it as the second car, in which the largest number of passengers was believed to have been riding and in which the toll was heaviest. Thirteen bodies - those of 12 men and a woman - still were inside, bringing the total revered thus far to 20.

Rescue workers were looking for additional bodies, including that of a 5-month-old baby whose mother escaped from the second car. Every window of the car was smashed - evidence of the frantic struggle of the trapped victims to escape - and it was thought many bodies probably had been swept away by the strong tides.

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Train plunges off a bridge into Newark Bay in 1958 - NY Daily News

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Among the bodies still in the car was that of a man who appeared to have almost made his escape. His left leg and his left ann were over the window sill but that was as far as he got. The salvaged coach was loaded aboard a car float and taken to the Naval Supply Base at nearby sa,omte. Operations then had to be suspended until 5 A.M., when the slacking of the tide would begin and the current subside. After the one car was raised, operations had to be suspended until5 A.M., when the next slaclcing of the tide would begin and the cumnt

subside. The disaster was a tragic combination of apparent human and mechanical failure. The train, cmying some 100 late-morning commuters and vacationers toward Jersey City, drove slowly but Inexorably through three signal Ughts and an automatic deraller to plunge 50 feet off the drawbrldge into the bay at a point between Bayonne and Elizabethport. With a billow of steam. twu diesels, a deadhead c:ar and a crowded c:oac:h of the five-c:oa.ch train disappeared immediately. The third car hung almost vertically, and there were deaths there, too, as the passengers slid forward under the high-tide, fast current waters. But many escaped because this car remained in its tilted position for two and a half hours before sliding into the bay in the midst of the rescue work. The last twu cars stayed on the tracks. Dlftlmlt to Help

Every form of sea-air-land rescue craft converged on the scene, about five miles southeast of the tip of Manhattan in the busy industrial area bounded by Newark. Elizabeth, Bayonne and Jersey City. Except to rescue a few survivors who had fought to the surl'ace and to retrieve some floating bodies, there was little they could do. As state and federal agencies opened investigations and a monster, 150-ton Merritt Chapman Scott 8t Co. salvage unit maneuvered into position, mystery surrounded the cause of the wreck. Despite twu earlier cautionary signals, engineer lloyd Wilburn, of 92 South Ridge Ave., Red Banlc. N.J. ran a red signalSSO feet short of the point of no return. An automatic deraller threw his train off the trac:ks - but, somehow, didn't stop her - and Wilburn continued not at fast speed, but steadily, over the open draw. He died along with three others of the six-man crew.

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40·&0 DIE IN TRAIN PLUNGE

B:i1113 The New York Daily News published this article on Sept 16, 1958. (NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

Just Didn't Stop

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Train plunges off a bridge into Newark Bay in 1958 - NY Daily News

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From the survivors, there was no immediate guess on what might have happened, and railroad authorities could only say: "It was a routine bridge opening. Normally, the trains stop when they get the red signal - but this fellow didn't stop." Whether Wilburn's brakes might have failed was not made clear. "We have done everything that should have been done in the line of safety equipment," said Earl T. Moore, railroad president. "It might have been some mechanical failure, but we don't want to go guess. We want to wait for all the evidence." Engineer for 18 Years The crash was Jersey Central's first since 1944 when one person was killed, and seven were injured. It was the first accident on the bridge in more than a quarter of a century. Terming the tragedy ·an unexplained accident," the railroad prexy defended the dead engineer, saying he had no intention now of blaming the crew. Wilburn, who would have been 64 next month, had been with the line for 37 years, 18 ofthem as an engineer. Despite four minor infractions, Moore said the engineer had "an exceptionally good record." Assistant Hudson County Medical Examiner Francis Boyle reported that an autopsy would be held to determine whether Wilburn had suffered a heart attack. However, at his last complete physical on July, 21, he was in perfect shape, Moore said. Service Nearly Normal During the day trains ran on an adjoining life, but at 4 P.M. the death span was lowered so that evening rush hour service could be restored almost to normal Homebound commuters could see the mighty salvage unit which had helped raise the liner Normandie and a 500-foot long salvage barge owned by the railroad. Police used 5,000-watt floodlights at the scene. Beginning at 10 o'clock last night, Magnus (Peanuts) Sonnegren, 36, a deep-sea diver of 273 Wardell Ave., Castelton Comers, S.I., made a series of dives in 35 to 40 feet of water to locate the submerged cars and ascertain their position. On the fifth and sixth dives he secured double slings of llh-ich cable at either end of Car No. 2, and the gigantic derrick went into action. The weight of the car pulled the derrick over almost on its side. As the roof of the car broke water, Coast Guard vessels flitted around looking for bodies that might have spilled out the windows but found none. Once the car windows were clear of the water, the derrick edged its burden over to the waiting ear float. Heading for Jersey City and the Hudson River ferries, the late morning commuter train had left Bay Head at 8:28A.M., connecting at Matawan with additional cars originating in Atlantic Highlands.

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Work being done to help raise cars. (GEORGE MATTSON)

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Bddp 32 Years Old An estimated 90 to 100 passengers were aboard, largely executives, wealthy Wall Streeters and weekend vacationers returning from the

Jersey shore. Al9:S7 A.M., on time, the train left Elizabethport for the 16 minute nm across Newark Bay to Bayonne and Jersey City. Spanning the bay is

a 32-year-old high wooden trestle, in the center of which are two double vertical lifts, each about 120 feet long. They can be raised SO feet to allow water traffic to pass. As the train approaclled, the Sand Captain. a barge, got clearance. Drawbridge Capt. Patrick Corcoran of:Elizabeth raised the span and set

the railroad signals. These were: A yellow-over-green caution light a mile and a half from the open draw; then an amber caution thRe quarters of a mile away; finally, a red

signal, 550 feet away. Heel Set Deraller Almost till the la&t minute, It seemed, engineer Wllburn was following standard operating procedure. Though permitted to go 45 m.p.h. on the bridge, he was proceeding at an estimated 25 to 30 m.p.h. and he had a reserve factor. Con:onn had also set the derailer which throws a train off the tracks once It passes a red. Ught. And then something ineJcplicable happened.

Commuters looking out the windows wondered why the barge didn't stop before it crashed. Into the presumably closed span. The barge

crew wondered why the train didn't slaw- and at the least moment, desperately baclced water to avoid being crushed from above. The derailer had wmked, all right - scars on the ties for some 500 feet back showed the train had bumped forward, inflicting an ironically small amount of damage for such a major disaster - $500 worth. Al10:02 A.M., she went down. Weighed 160 Tons Each First, the two diesels, each weighing 160 tons, went down. c:anying most of the train crew with them. The empty deadhead followed - and

then the first roach.

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The edge of a railroad bridge Is crowded with rescue workers. OOE PETRELLA)

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Train plunges off a bridge into Newark Bay in 1958 - NY Daily News

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