Newark Bay rail accident

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The Newark Bay train accident occurred on 15 September 1958 in Newark Bay, New Jersey. The morning Central Railroad of New Jersey (CRRNJ) commuter train, # 3314, ran through the stop signals and stopped, slipped, and slid off the open bridge of Bay Newark. Both diesel locomotives and the first two trainers crashed into Newark Bay and drowned, killing 48 people and injuring the same number. The third coach, caught up in his back truck (bogie), hung precariously from the elevator bridge for two hours before falling into the water. When the locomotive crew was killed, the cause of the accident was never determined, and never re-investigated.

Video Newark Bay rail accident

Terms

There are three signals that are three quarters of a mile, quarter mile and 500 feet (150 m) from the raffle bridge, and the automatic derailing device is fifty meters beyond the third signal. The bridge range should descend and be electrically locked before the signal and the slip device can be cleaned for movement on the track. Instead, all devices must be in the most stringent position before the bridge can be opened and raised. The train ran through two signals and rolled automatically; the automatic derailer is designed to knock the wheels off the track so that the bonding and weighing resistance to the train wheel will bring the slow moving train to a halt to stop. Train # 3314, though slipping, moves at high speed so it does not have enough distance to stop before plunging from the bridge.

Maps Newark Bay rail accident

Cause

The Intergovernmental Commission on Utilities, the New Jersey Public Utility Commission, and the United States Army Engineer Corps each conducted separate investigations into shipwrecks, and all three found that the absence of "control of the dead" was one of the main causes of the accident. After the investigation, the New Jersey Public Utilities Commission ordered trains to install such devices in all passenger locomotives operating in New Jersey. Some of the locomotives of Central Jersey are already equipped with such devices, but this does not include the engines that led CNJ train # 3314 on the day of the crash. The train claims that such a device is not always necessary, because all their trains have two crew members in the locomotive cabin. If the engineer was paralyzed somehow, firefighters would take over the locomotive's control.

The autopsy found that engineer Lloyd Wilburn, 63, had an indication of hypertensive heart disease, but he died of asphyxia from drowning. However, no reason could be found to explain why firefighter Peter Andrew, 42, could not or did not stop the train. Investigators picked up the debris and found no defect in the locomotive and coach braking system; it is also determined that the signal system and derailing device on the bridge has functioned well. Lacking more definitive evidence, it was perceived that engineers somehow became incapable in the cabin and firefighters failed to take proper action to stop the train. The presence of deadman controls in the locomotive cabin may have prevented a disaster, and, while I.C.C. only "recommend" the installation of this device, the New Jersey Utility General Council directed that trains install it in all of its locomotives.

src: www.nydailynews.com

Aftermath

At least 48 people were killed in the crash, including second-class New York Yankees baseman George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss and James Carmalt Adams, brother-in-law writer Kurt Vonnegut. The train has a number of legal actions against it, all of which are settled out of court. Two locomotives, # 1532 and # 1526, were raised, rebuilt by Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (EMD) and resumed operations. Locomotive # 1532 retains its original number, while # 1526 is numbered back # 1531. They serve primarily as cargo locomotives, though # 1532 is photographed in passenger service upon return from EMD. The last lift bridge of Newark Bay was used during 1978 and was determined to endanger navigation; it was destroyed during the 1980s.

src: assets.nydailynews.com

References

src: www.baseball-almanac.com

External links

• "CNJ Newark Bay Draw Wreck (book for sale)". Tri-State Railway Historical Society, Inc. Archived from original on May 5, 2009 . Retrieved April 18, 2009 .
• "Remnants of CRRNJ Newark Bay bridge, Bayonne New Jersey" . Retrieved April 18, 2009 .
• "New Jersey Bay New Jersey Bay Railway Bridge Bridges". bridgesnyc . Retrieved June 3rd, 2015 .

Source of the article : Wikipedia