THE MALBONE STREET WRECK, NOVEMBER 1, 1918
The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT), a privately owned rail line, was experiencing one of its frequent strikes. As was the custom at that time, nonunion personnel were given basic operating instructions and sent out to operate the trains. A BRT dispatcher, replacing a motorman, was operating a five-car train on the Brighton Line. It was his first day operating a train.
On his second trip, a rush-hour run from City Hall to Brighton Beach, the motorman accepted an incorrectly set switch and signal and proceeded onto the wrong tracks. Realizing his mistake, he backed up the train and switched it to the proper tracks. Attempting to make up for lost time, the novice motorman was traveling, by his ow n admission, at a speed of 30 mph, on a downgrade, in an area with which he was unfamiliar. One passenger, a Naval officer, claimed that the motorman “was operating the train fully at 70 mph ” and that passengers were visibly scared.
Up ahead were a curve and a tunnel. Signs along the roadway posted the speed limit at 6 mph. The front wheels (trucks) of the speeding train made the curve and entered the tunnel. The rear truck jumped the tracks and slammed into the concrete wall separating the north and south tracks. The second car failed to follow the curve at all and crushed the first car, coming to rest perpendicular to the tracks, where it was ploughed through by the third and fourth cars. Only splintered fragments of wood with tw isted bits of iron and steel remained, compacted into the tunnel.
Rescue workers were unable to enter the tunnel and had to remove victims and debris as they worked their way into the wreck. Ninetyseven people were dead and more than 100 were injured in the worst subway disaster in New York Cityhistory.
The motorman and BRT officials were indicted for their part in this tragedy. Subsequently, the motorman was aquitted of manslaughter charges and the officials’ indictments were dismissed.
The Malbone Street wreck brought about changes. Signaling techniques were developed for electrically monitoring the speed of downhill trains, and automatic braking equipment was installed to stop the train if it exceeded the speed limit.
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Companyfiled for bankruptcy on the last day of 1918. The name Malbone Street was changed to Empire Boulevard.
The New York State Public Transportation Safety Board has released its findings on the fatal August 1991 Union Square subwray crash, recommending nearly two dozen changes—chiefly, a complete modernization of subway signals with the installation of additional automatic tripping devices to slow runaway trains at 31 highly vulnerable areas. The board also recommended improvements to subway train brakes as well as programs to reduce alcohol and drug abuse.
The current signal system is 70 years old. It last was improved after the Malbone Street wreck.
The New York State Safety Board investigation blamed the crash on the motorman. A criminal case against him continues, as does the investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board
