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On January 10, 1888, a terrible railroad accident occurred at Haverhill
Massachusetts. An express train from Boston jumped the rails at a switch,
with one passenger car landing on its side on the Merrimac River Bridge, and
a second car tossed into a huge water tower. At least a dozen people lost
their lives that evening.
A broken wheel on one of the passenger cars had caused the accident. The
Boston & Maine Railroad express train was traveling at about 30 miles per
hour over a switch, causing the third car to sway violently. The rear wheels
of the fourth car jumped the track, and the car was thrown sideways into an
adjacent water tower. The water tower contained hundreds of tons of water.
The tower collapsed, killing three men beneath it, and crushing the
passenger car into timbers. About ten people were killed in the passenger
car, with twenty or more people severely injured. The January 11th 1888
Boston Globe quotes one of the witnesses:
"As the destined train rushed along, the fourth car, just after it broke
away from the fifth, struck against the tank, threw it over, allowing it to
drop to the ground, crushing the three men to death who were seated beneath
it. Besides putting the end to the lives of these section men, the tank, as
it fell, crushed beneath it the fourth car, killing seven men, one woman,
and a child who were within it. This made a total of 12 killed by the
falling of the tank. All of those killed were terribly crushed and mangled.
Before I left I learned that between 30 and 40 more were more or less
injured, some crushed, others only scratched. A number of those who were
injured will die of their wounds."
The third car behind the engine had also derailed and was dragged by the
train onto the bridge. The passenger car swung violently along the wooden
ties as it was dragged, and eventually fell onto its side and detached from
the train. It was extremely fortunate the car did not plunge into the
Merrimac River. The engine proceeded over the bridge into Haverhill Station,
blowing its whistle to signal that an accident had occurred.
Inside the ill-fated car that struck the tower, a woman and her six year old
son were both crushed to death, with the woman holding the boy tightly in
her arms in an attempt to protect him from injury. Maternal instinct knows
no bounds; and should always be honored.
The first sentence in the above Boston Globe article stated "Ashtabula, with
all its horrors, has been repeated." On December 29th 1876, the engine and
13 passenger cars plunged down a 90 foot embankment into the icy Ashtabula
River in Ohio. Almost 200 people were crushed, burned, or frozen to death in
this extremely sad accident.
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