| Notes |
- Buffalo NY Courier - 4/2/1918
Michael Mucha, who was motorman
on the Buffalo & Depew car, wrecked
at Weibel's curve early in January,
when three men were killed and se-
eral others injured,, pleaded ot guil-
ty to an indictment charging man-
slaughter, second degree, when ar-
raigned before Justice Emery in su-
preme court yesterday.
Mucha is charged with respondibility
for the deaths of Martin P. Smith,
Anthony Yurecki and Jacob Brunner.
MRs. Brunner, reccently was awarded
a verdict against the Buffalo & Depew
railroad for the death of her hus-
band.
ALSO
Buffalo NY Courier - 1/6/1918
Investigation into' the cause of the
wreck yesterday morning* when a trolley
car of the Buffalo & £ epew Ra 1-
way company Jumped the track and
rolled into a field just insid's the limits
of Depew, causing the death of three
men and serious if not fatal injuries to
several others, will.be made by county
officials.
Justice of Peace Higgim of Depew
will hold an Inquest at 10 o' clock Tuesday
morning' at which ;Deputy Medical
Examiner Cook, county officials and'a
score of witnesses will appear. Officials
of the company also willl attend and
give their version of the accident.
The Victims
The dead:
Martin F. Smith, twenty-four years
old, whose parents conduct a hotel at
'Union road and Genesee'street; head
crushed.
Anthony Yurecki,, thirty years old,
of Forks; fractured skull and Internal
Injuries; died a few minutes after being
taken to the German Deaconess
hospital; body at. morgue. .
Jacob Bruner, laborer, No. 18 Rogers
avenue, Buffalo.
Those at German Deaconess hospital
are:
Alois Schiesel, fifty-one years old. of
Union Road; In a critical condition.
William Hicks, forty-six years, old,
of No. 977 Northampton street; internally
injured and cut on the body.
Gustave Eittlinger, forty-two-years
old, of Forks, who was serlously injured.
Albert Leaser, twenty years old,;No.
2396 Bailey avenue; fractured skull and
spine and Internal injuries; condition
critical.
Five were taken to the hospital and
latter taken home. They are:
Frank Fotos, fifty years old, of
Forks, N. T.: George Obers , forty-two
years old, of No. 86 Nevada street; Arthur
Harrnik, twenty-one years old, of
Forks; John Draszskiewics, twentynine
years old, of Forks, and Walter
Zobowski, nineteen years old. of Forks.
Those given first aid at the scene and
sent home: Edward Granse, Andrew
Hill; F.L.Schulmberg,, Forks; Robert
Beinig, No. 413 Goodyer avenue; Leo
Haas, Montana street; Frank Brittling-
er, Cheektowaga; Charles Hausner, No.
373 Urban street; August Pauly,, No. 145
St. Louis avenue; Hugh and John Kin-
sella, No. 14 Moeler avenue; Victor
Gangloff, Union road, and Arthur
Dorn, No. 245 Landon street; Schulm-
berg was a brother-in-law of Martin
Smith, the dead man. All were cut
and bruised, but none was seriously
hurt.
On "Death Curve"
The wrecked car,, No. 21.,, with thirty-
six passengers, all on their way to work
at the Gould Coupler plant and; the
New York Car Wheel works in Depew,
left the city limits at Genesee street
at 6:20 o'clock.
The car reached the curve. a thirty-
degree turn,'-twenty minutes later;wlth
i t s brakes set and power off, according
to the motorman. The company had
issued rues for all motormen to sow
down and have their power under con-
trol at this curve, considered most dan-
gerous of all points on the line.
But the rails were sippery and the
car left them, the body parting fro
the trucks. The trucks remained up-
right beside the car line.
The car body got momentum from
the raised tracks, which are three feet
above ground level at this particular
curve,, ad went whirling into two tele-
grap hpoles fifty feet away. Both were
snapped off clean and a sub support-
ing pole spintered.
The otorman, Michael Mucha, was
still in his vestibule when the car
smashed into the teleraph oles and
his escape is considered miraculous.
He received mminor injuries to his right
hand and forehead while the conduc-
tor,, Leo Siwinski, was injured in the
left hip and left leg. Both live in De-
pew. There is a danger ight at the
curve, wich ordinarily can be seen at
a distance, but the heavy fog made it
indistinct
Dr. R.L.Stratton of Depew was
quickly on the scene of the accident.
He gave the men first aid. A second
trolley car arrived a few minutes later.
The wunded men were put in this and
taken to the ciity line where the am-
bulances had been summoned.
The three victims were horribly
crushed beneath a heap of wreckage.
When the bodies of Smith and
Brunner were removed from beneath
the debris with the aid of jacks, life
was extinct. They were sent to the
morgue by Deputy Medical Examiner
Cook.
The second trolley car, in which the
wounded were taken to the hospitals
and home, was in chare of J. Mc
Nichols,, motorman, and Albert Martin,
conductor. Both ive in Depew. Traf-
fic was tied up for three hours.
Superintendent's Statement
The general supintendent of the
Buffalo & Depew can find no reason
for the disaster. The company will
make a thorough investigation, he says..
"It looks llike one of those deviish
mishaps which one sometimes meets
in forty-six years of railroading," he
stated last night.
"We instruct all our men to slow
down when they go down grade or make
a sharp turn. All signs show that
Mucha did this.
"The track was in excellent condi-
tion at this point. It was brought upp
to the mark with new ballast last
summer
"The car trucks of No. 21 were in
first class shape. A New York public
service commission expert examined
track and trucks today and seemed
satisfied that the disaster was due to
neither.
"The only mark on the trucks after
the accident was one broken casting.
Contact with the frozen ground after
the wreck snapped it.
"Mucha is a highlly efficient man and
temperate. He slept in our car barn
last night. I frequently rode on his
car and found him invarably a man
in perfect control of his car. Our in-
structions specifically state that mo-
tormen must slow down at down grades
and have their car under the most
perfect control. An examination of the
motor after the accident showed that
Mucha had the brakes set."
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1860 - 1918 (~ 57 years)