Horrible accident.
--
Wm. Anderson, an old gentleman sixty years of age, and a prominent citizen of Littsville, N. Y., was killed at
Utica, on Wednesday last, by being run over in attempting to leap on a train while in motion.
He was standing on the platform and the train had moved off a few feet.
The Journal says:
‘
Mr. Anderson hurried out with his spectacles in one hand and a roll of bank bills in the other, and attempted to get aboard the first car. He caught hold of the railing of the rear platform of the first car with his right hand, and attempted to seize the
iron railing of the other car with his left hand; but his left hand either slipped off or missed its grasp entirely, which caused his body to swing down between the two cars.
The fall wrenched his right hand from its hold, and he fell across the inside rail.
James Cole, the brakesman, was standing upon the rear platform of the first car when
Mr. Anderson attempted to get on, and seeing him fall, made an effort to seize him, but before he could reach him
Mr. A. had lost his hold and fallen beneath the ponderous wheels.
Cole instantly sprang to the brake, which he put down with all his power, but with all the effort put forth by him and the engineer, the train moved some fifteen or twenty feet before its motion could be arrested.--
Mr. Cole describes it as the most terrible scene he ever witnessed, for he could see, as he tugged at the brake, the body of
Mr. Anderson shoved along on the iron rail by the beam of the brake, which would not allow his thighs to pass under the wheel.
As
Mr. Anderson fell under the car
Cole heard him cry out twice, in a loud, distinct, yet frightened tone, ‘"Hold on!
hold on!"’ and then he was silent.
He fell with his head and body lying between the two tracks, and his legs crossing the inside rail diagonally.
His body was thus moved slowly along beneath, the crushing weight of the car a distance of fifteen feet, when it came to a crossing which caught it and fairly ground it under, and the two forward wheels of the hind car passed over his legs, and his head and body were crushed between the brake and the crossing.
’
