FATAL ACCIDENT IN ALTOONA.
Mr. Alex. C. Wentzell, for sixteen years an employe in the “hard” of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Altoona, met with a horrible and instant death while in the discharge of his duty. For some past he had held the position of assistant foreman of car inspectors, and while examining some trucks while were standing on the track he happened to notice that a brake-chain of a gondola car was broken. Thinking that it would require but a minute or two to repair it, he neglected to put up the usual danger signal so as to give employes warning that he was engaged under the car. He crawled in, and about the same instant a shifting locomotive which he had not noticed bumped against the train with considerable force. He was caught in the brake-rigging and dragged several feet, when his body rolled over on the track, and the wheels ground him length-wise from his dead and down over his body to the lower part of the abdomen. Instant death was the result. Deceased was aged forty-five years, and he leaves a wife and five children. He was sober and industrious, and the Railroad Company had no more faithful employe. Several of our residents were well acquainted with him. - Johnstown Tribune, 29th. |
