On the sultry Saturday afternoon of August 4, 1906 Lake Shore Electric motorman, Wilbur.D. Moody, departed Public Square in downtown Cleveland piloting the brand new Niles Car No. 152, headed west across the landscape of northern Ohio, and rode into history. Manufactured by the Niles Car Company in Niles, Ohio earlier that year Car 152 was one of ten acquired by the L.S.E since May 28th and had been working limited schedules for the line only since July 27. The arrival of the cars had been quite an event throughout the area of operations and they were touted as rolling palaces by the media. Furnished with cathedral arched glass windows, cherry interiors with decorative white holly inlays, and leather seats, they also featured white tiled toilets. Not only were they lauded for their good looks, they were said to be easy riding, comfortable, and fast. Powered by four 85-hp Westinghouse electric motors they could reach speeds of 70mph. However, the roads aging bridges and existing rail service lines prevented using such speed on any regular basis.
Westbound Limited No. 152 left Cleveland Public Square fully loaded. Although various passengers debarked the trolley as it made its way along the Erie coastline others boarded. And by the time it left Vermilion where it picked up 42 additional passengers it was carrying nearly twice its normal seating capacity (54) and was running behind schedule. Earlier in the day Motorman Moody had been given written instructions to pull over on Lake Siding #38, just west of Vermilion, to allow an east-bound Local 46 to pass before going ahead. Whether Moody was distracted by the crowd, the rainy weather, or he just plain forgot to follow his orders will never really be known. All that is known is that at at about 3:30 that afternoon west-bound Niles Car 152, pride of the rail line, crashed head-on with east-bound Car 46 just a quarter mile west of town (near what is today Bluebird Beach).
Thirty-five year old motorman, W.D. Moody from Beach Park (now Avon Lake) and 23 year old Frederick Smiley of Lima, Ohio were killed immediately. James Yerrick, a salesman for the Great Western Oil Company in Elyria, died as he was being transported to St. Josephs Hospital in Lorain. Four months later the accident claimed another victim when Andrew Ingrun of Pittsburgh, PA. died of injuries he received in the accident. In all, forty-one additional passengers on the Niles Car were hurt. There were very few passengers in the other car and none were severely wounded.
All of the accident victims were removed from the scene and taken to the Maudelton Hotel where local doctors and others from both Norwalk and Lorain cared for them. One newspaper reported that The veranda and lawn about the hotel resembled a ward in a hospital. Later in the afternoon the more seriously injured were moved to the Lorain hospital. Fifteen others were placed in rooms in the hotel. The remainder were sufficiently well enough to travel to their respective homes.
In mid-September Erie County Coroner, a man named McClelland, held an inquest at the Vermilion Township Hall. Among the witnesses was H.R. Williams, who was also Vermilions Mayor. He testified that when he reached the wreck he had looked in the car for the motorman's orders with no success. The most compelling testimony, however, was from H.W. Remlinger of Norwalk the Conductor on the Niles Car. When he found that they had passed the siding he tried his best to stop the car by ringing the warning bell twice. He also struggled to reach the emergency valve. Unsuccessful at that he was pushing his way through the crowded car to the trolley rope in hopes of disengaging the powerline when the crash came telescoping Car 152 to one third its original size. He further testified that the electric had slowed from about 40 mph to about 20 when the collision occurred.
© 2004 Richard Neale Tarrant