1928 — Aug 24, subway train crash, 42nd Street near Times Square Station, NYC     –    16

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 2-16-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/-

–16  NY Times. “Inquiry Opens Today Into Subway Wreck; Death List Now 16.” 8-27-1928, p. 1.

Narrative Information

Aug 25, NYT: “13 Dead, 100 Hurt in Subway Crash in Times Square; Two Cars of Rush-Hour I.R.T. Express Jump Faulty Switch; Subway Maintenance Man Arrested, Charge is Homicide.” P1

“Two cars leaped from the subway rails south of the Times Square station yesterday at the 5 o’clock rush hour and brought death to thirteen passengers and injuries to at least 100 others. Reports immediately after the accident put the number of dead at from twenty to twenty-five. Later the number dropped to seventeen and that figure was accepted until an early hour this morning when a careful check at the Bellevue morgue and at all hospitals where victims were known to have died or injured persons to have been treated, fixed the toll definitely at eleven. At 2:45 this morning announcement that the police had arrived at this last-mentioned figure was made at the West Thirtieth Street station. Half an hour later two more victims died in Polyclinic Hospital, raising the number to thirteen.

“The train, an express southbound from Van Cortlandt Park to Brooklyn, had just cleared the platform with about 1,800 passengers and was gathering momentum as it jolted across a switchover eighty-five feet beyond the south end of the station. Eight of the ten cars had swung past the switch and the speed was picking up when the forward truck of the ninth car struck the switch. With a sudden bump the trucks left the track. There was a terrific jolt and the front quarter of the car was torn off. Like a stone flung by a giant the torn section, still coupled, was smashed against the concrete and stone partition, twenty feet high, which separates the north and south-bound express tracks. The fragment of car, with its human freight, was flattened against the wall. As this happened, the rear end of the car was swung to the other side and several steel supporting pillars were ripped out. Torn and tangled, the two pieces of car fell in ruins against the concrete wall. The tenth car, pulled forward by the momentum, hit the pile of ruins.

“While the darkness of the subway was weirdly illuminated by fierce pyrotechnics given off by the third rail and the wreckage lying upon it, the car buckled and bent like a bow. Finally, after a fearful pause, it sagged over to become a mass of  ruins like the other, encasing in steel the dead and injured, all of whom were in the last two cars.

“The fact that all of the casualties had been in these cars was not known definitely until hours after, when the work of rescue had been completed and investigations had been launched. Pending further inquiry, the cause of the wreck was assigned to defective operation of the switch. Frank T. Hedley, President of the Interborough, announced this after he had conferred with company employes and with the inspectors of the Transit Commission, which joined in an inquiry initiated by Mayor Walker a few minutes after he had arrived at the scene. Mr. Hedley said that the switch had been giving trouble and that the train had been held in the station for five minutes just before the wreck.

“Mayor Walker said that he had been told by the police as soon as he reached the scene of the accident that the switch had not been working properly. The Mayor, who went down into the subway fifteen minutes after the wreck, was deeply moved by the scene. He added, however, that the terrific strain put on the subway by the smashing of the cars had demonstrated the soundness of construction of the system.

“Continuing his investigation at the West Thirtieth Street Police Station, the Mayor was informed that Wiliam C. Baldwin, a Maintenance Department employe of the Interborough, was responsible for the working of the switch. The Mayor then insisted that Mr. Hedley produce Baldwin and placed the Interborough President under technical arrest until Baldwin had been produced. Baldwin was questioned by police officials and Assistant District Attorney Macgowan. Mr. Macgowan departed just before 3 o’clock this morning, and Le M. Hutchins, an attorney for the Interborough, then informed reporters that he had been notified that Baldwin would be held on the charge of homicide as soon as the police had completed their examination, and that he would be arraigned in Jefferson Market Court this morning. Baldwin has been an Interborough employe for thirty years. Baldwin’s arrest came a few minutes later.

“Despite the scope of the wreck, which was the worst in the history of Manhattan and second in the history of the city, being exceeded only by the Malbone Street tunnel disaster in Brooklyn in 1918, when ninety-three persons were killed, there was no aftermath of fire except for momentary short-circuiting. The prompt turning off the current prevented this and also saved hundreds who walked from stalled cars from the danger of the third rail….”

Aug 25, New York Times: “Dead and Injured In Subway Wreck,” p. 1:

“The Dead:

Burke, James, 19 years old, 210 Avenue A, Inwood, L.I. [Long Island]

Cone, Joseph, 28 years old, address unknown.

Fry, George, 21 years old, Rockville Centre, L.I.

Haines, Mary, 57 Linden Street, West New Brighton, S.I. [Staten Island]

Keane, Anna, Mrs., 23 years old, 312 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn…died in Polyclinic Hosp.

McGroarty, Anna, 25 years old, 20 Remsen Street Brookly…died in Polyclinic Hospital.

Menegus, Vincent, 31 years old, 175 Trimble Street, Clifton, N.J.; died on way to hosp.

Rabinowitz, Irving, 25 years old, 322 East Ninety-first Street, Brooklyn; died in hospital.

Weatherford, Alice, 64 years old, of 167 Hicks Street, Brooklyn…

Zips, Mrs. Marion, 29 years old, 560 West 144^th Street, Manhattan…

Zips, Herbert, 11 years old, of 560 West 144^th Street…

Woman, unidentified, about 28 years old…

Woman, unidentified, 25 years old…”

Aug 26, NYT: “The Transit Commission in an official finding yesterday blamed ‘man failure’ for the Times Square subway wreck, while the list of dead grew to fifteen. Twenty-five victims of the crash were still in hospitals yesterday.

“Acting in advance of the finding, District Attorney Banton placed responsibility for the accident upon William S. Baldwin, maintenance foreman of the Interborough. Baldwin, who had been charged with homicide in the early morning hours after prolonged questioning, was released in $10,000 bail for a hearing tomorrow.

“Frank T. Hedley, President of the Interborough, refused to fix individual responsibility. He admitted that the company was liable in the accident, but added that the city must share any financial obligation that might result from suits by relatives of victims or by passengers injured. Chairman John F. Gilchrist of the Transit Commission disputed the city’s direct liability.

“Although Baldwin apparently was singled out for blame by the authorities – Mayor Walker and Commissioner Warren concurring in Mr. Blanton’s action – the Transit Commission’s report suggested another possible cause of the disaster. The police investigators charged Baldwin with having sent the ten-car west side express over a defective switch, eight-five feet south of the Times Square station, causing derailment and wrecking of the ninth and tenth coaches in Friday’s accident.

“The Transit Commission report, however, suggested that the derailment might have been caused by the switch being thrown as the train was passing over it. Baldwin at that time was standing beside the track while an assistant, Joseph Carr, manually operated the switch, holding down the ‘tripper,’ which otherwise would have stopped the train. Carr has denied that he released the switch at any time. He said that he held it to keep the express on the southbound express tracks and away from a switchover to a middle track, used to  store emergency trains.

“‘In the opinion of the commission’s signal and switch experts,’ said the commission, ‘the  switch that caused the derailment was turned into the middle track, while the train was passing over the  switch. There is nothing to show that the switch was turned by the train itself. It might have been turned over by a movement of the lever I the tower or by some one moving the switch valves located near the track.’

“The commission also found that if the switch had been ‘spiked’ as soon as it was found faulty, as is the practice in ‘good railroad operations,’ the apparatus could not have been moved, either from the tower or from the post of Baldwin and his helper alongside the track. ‘Spiking’ is the driving in of a railroad spike beside the switch, thus locking it.

“During the passage of the train over the switch, Henry King, towerman, was in the tower where the switch levers are located. It was King who reported the defective switch to Baldwin. The towerman told Mayor Walker’s investigators that he had had no control over the train as soon as Baldwin appeared. He said that Baldwin had been in charge and to him should go all responsibility. ‘I’ve been told not to talk,’ King said to a Times reporter, who went to his home at 452 Riverside Drive, ‘but I will say that I did not touch the switch.’….” (New York Times. “Board Lays I.R.T. Wreck To Man Failure; Police Blame Employe; He is Held in Bail; Hedley Says City Shares Suit Liability. Switch Moved Under Car. Perhaps Opened by Man in Tower or at Track, the Commission Holds.” 8-26-1928, p. 1.)

Aug 27, NYT: “The sixteenth victim of the Times Square subway wreck died yesterday, and this morning District Attorney Banton will formally open his investigation to fix responsibility for the deaths and for the injuries to 100 passengers in Friday evening’s disaster….

….

“The switch was located eighty-five feet south of the Times Square station, and after eight of the ten cars in the Can Cortlandt Park-Brooklyn train had negotiated the switch the ninth car leaped from the rails and was demolished against the stone and concrete partition separating the southbound express tracks from a ‘turn-back’ track used for rush-hour train switching. The tenth car also was smashed against the wall….” (New York Times. “Inquiry Opens Today Into Subway Wreck; Death List Now 16.” 8-27-1928, p. 1.)

Sources

New York Times. “Board Lays I.R.T. Wreck To Man Failure; Police Blame Employe; He is Held in Bail; Hedley Says City Shares Suit Liability. Switch Moved Under Car. Perhaps Opened by Man in Tower or at Track, the Commission Holds.” 8-26-1928, p. 1. Accessed 2-16-2025 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/08/26/issue.html

New York Times. “13 Dead, 100 Hurt in Subway Crash in Times Square; Two Cars of Rush-Hour I.R.T. Express Jump Faulty Switch; Subway Maintenance Man Arrested, Charge is Homicide.” 8-25-1928, pp. 1-2. Accessed 2-15-2025 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/08/25/issue.html

New York Times: “Dead and Injured In Subway Wreck,” 8-25-1928, p. 1. Accessed 2-16-2025 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/08/25/issue.html

New York Times. “Inquiry Opens Today Into Subway Wreck; Death List Now 16.” 8-27-1928, p. 1.. Accessed 2-16-2025 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/08/27/issue.html