The worst electric rail crash in Ontario’s history and the 3rd worst in Canadian history (at the time) occurred at Queenston
Heights in Niagara Falls on July 7 1915. In total
the crash of car number 685 claimed the lives of 15 people and was responsible for injuring 130
people. To put the scale of the accident into context, more lives were lost and more people were injured during the 1915 trolley accident than British soldiers during the battle of Queenston Heights.
The main
occupants of the trolley were members of Toronto’s Wood Green Methodist and St
John Presbyterian Sunday school groups. The two church groups had organized a
day trip to Niagara Falls for the approximate 1,100 parishioners (majority of which were women and children). The accident occurred when the two groups were on
their way home. All day the weather had been ideal for taking portraits and going picnicking, however
towards the evening hours (approximately 7:15 pm) it began to rain. The two groups flocked from Brock Monument to the
trolley, resulting in it’s 84 person capacity being far exceeded – in total 157
tickets were collected and an estimated 177 people were onboard. The front bench behind the driver was piled high with the passengers picnic baskets and every seat and inch of standing space was filled - this included men standing on the outside of the car (which was against company policy). Despite the severe overcrowding, the passengers were joyously singing hymns and the song "Tipperary".
A group of
nearby soldier’s witnessed the crash and raced to the passengers' aid. They split the bottom of the trolley open and began to remove the injured and deceased passengers. Unfortunately, the trolley had descended off of the track at one of the least accessible parts of the route. This further increased the difficulty of the rescue effort and contributed to the number of deaths. The most
critically injured were taken to a hospital in Niagara Falls, N.Y The small Niagara Falls hospital was quickly overwhelmed as it struggled to care for the 24 most critically injured victims. This was no small feet for the hospital as it only featured 20 beds and a single operating room. The hospitals eight surgeons worked through the night treating everything from fractured limbs to amputations. The other victims were taken aboard the Chippewa to be treated on the steamer as it sailed back to Toronto. The Chippewa was not a hospital ship and therefore it was also ill equipped to meet the needs of the injured people. Medical staff used wet grass to wash wounds and strips were torn from women's petticoats to use as makeshift bandages. When the steamer finally docked in Toronto, it was met by stretchers, ambulances, police, anxious onlookers, and volunteers who were all eager to help. The patients that needed to be hospitalized were taken to Toronto General Hospital for treatment. It took nearly three hours after the ships arrival for all the people and bodies to be removed. The Toronto Star would later dub this arrival the "saddest arrival of a boat in the city's history".
For the following two
days, Toronto newspapers were filled almost entirely with details surrounding
the accident. Initially it was reported that there were 10 fatalities (mostly
women and children), but that later was increased to a total of 15. The Toronto Star and the The Globes published several descriptions of the unidentified injured and dead. The Niagara rescuers and morticians were left with multiple nameless patients and victims after many of the survivors (that could have identified these people) were swiftly taken back to Toronto.
In a way, the Wood Green Sunday school children had predicted that a tragedy would plague the trip. During the weeks leading up to the trip, the children had started a rumour that a German U-boat was in Lake Ontario and was going to sink their steamer. The rumour got so out of hand that the children were given a formal talking to on the previous Sunday.
One of the
most captivating stories was the miraculous survival of a nine month old baby boy
named Charles Daniels. Despite his mother sustaining severe injuries, he was
found happy and unharmed, buried beneath a pile of dead bodies and wreckage. Due to
his father serving overseas, his mother being hospitalized, and his surviving
siblings being too young to care for him, he was temporarily placed in the care
of a woman named Mrs. J. A. MacLeod.
News of the accident reached as far as the Los Angeles Times - although the accuracy of their account various greatly from that of the Toronto Star and The Globes. The widespread coverage of the accident caused an influx of reporters to visit the Niagara Falls area. To the shock and horror of many it was reported, during the days following the accident, that the International Railway Company continued to overload the cars. One reporter went on to describe how 5 days after the accident he saw a car with "many [standing] on the running boards descending Queenston Heights". Reports like this made it evident that legal action would need to be taken. Mayor Church (Toronto's Mayor at the time of the accident) went to the Board of Control claiming that "Our citizens are being murdered! There is no inspection [...] under the Ontario Railway Board. The law is a dead letter. They aren't even required to equip their cars with the latest safety devices!". He went on to demanded that responsible parties be prosecuted, and after much debate the Board agreed.
A formal inquiry was conducted to determine the exact causes and who was liable. It was determined that the operator's slack observance of the sand box loading policy often allowed the trolley cars to be operated with an empty or missing sand punch. During the court trial the driver admitted to not checking the level within the sand punch and when further pressed was unable to confirm that it was even onboard during the fatal trip. The driver who had operated the same car earlier that morning claimed that (during his shift) the sand punch was not onboard and that its absence was never communicated to the car barn. Ultimately it was determined that the sand punch had been present, but according to an electrician employed by the Niagara, St Catherine's, and Toronto Railway, "the sand punch was in such a position that it was useless". He went on to say that if the sand punch had been correctly positioned he believes that, even with the heavy load, the driver should have been able to maintain a safe speed of seven or eight miles per hour.
The International Railway Company's poor maintenance practices further compounded this issue by allowing weeds to cover the tracks and by providing the operator's with failing and/or missing equipment. According the employee who was tasked with maintaining the tracks, he had last removed the weeds on June 29th; however, images were produced in court showing that on the day of the accident the track contained six inch high weeds. Similarly negligent maintenance practices applied to the trolley cars. The company claimed that the car as last serviced in May and had gone through a rigorous inspection prior to returning to service in July. Despite these claims it was found that the car had not been equipped with an emergency brake, instead only offering a brake rod which snapped while navigating the first two turns.
Above all though, the greatest contributor was the car being severely overcapacity. It soon became evident that company's drivers did not understand how many passengers their cars were designed to carry and that the company had taken very little measures to enforce the capacity limit policy. Two of the victims claimed that they had seen between 21 and 27 people crammed into what should have been a two person bench of the car. It is claimed that even the driver was crowded by the passengers. Despite this, the driver had made no effort to turn away the addition passengers. When it was suggested to him that some of the passengers should get off and wait for the following car, he responded with that "there is no time". During the investigation, the driver plead negligence and claimed that he "did not look around during the trip from the monument to notice the [number of passengers]". The conductor on the other hand had collected the tickets and was aware of how crowded the car was but did not think it was an issue. When he was questioned about the trolleys capacity limit he replied "all that could be got onboard". He did acknowledge that the car was overcrowded, but he did not believe that it was dangerously overcrowded. Both of their responses were well in line with the company's practices. Since the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Niagara Falls had experienced a decrease in tourism. Like many other tourist attractions, the trolley lines had felt the economic burden of the decreased traffic and was in desperate need of cost cutting measures. Overcrowding the cars allowed the company to operate (and in turn maintain) fewer trolley cars from their fleet, ultimately providing them with the much needed savings. The morning on July 7th was no different. It is claimed that the company had four trolley cars waiting at the wharf but had chosen to overcrowd three of them so that the fourth could remain non-operational that day. The company often chose to place three or four additional passengers on the rails instead of running a new car, although they tried to deny this was done as a cost saving measure.
C. F George of The Globe newspaper was quoted for calling the practice of overcrowding the cars "a crime against humanity". He went on to say that "to attempt to go down such a steep grade as Queenston Heights with such a load was simply courting disaster". He demanded that an act of Parliament should be passed to prevent companies from choosing greed and selfishness over safety; those who chose not to uphold these standards should be fined and held accountable.
During the investigation, the overcrowding was found to contribute to the accident in a rather unexpected way. To accommodate the large crowd, a group of small boys had joined the conductor on the rear platform. Throughout that fateful journey, the conductor claimed that he was distracted from his duties as he had been trying to look after the boys. During the second turn, his divided attention caused him to forget to place his hand on the trolley pole rope. This in turn is what had allowed the trolley to slip off of the overhead wire, ultimately causing the car to loose power.
This accident had a major impact on how
electric rail cars were required to operate. Two new safety measures were put
in place to ensure that a similar disaster could not take place in the future. The
first was that the car needed to be able to safely navigate the track even when
its brakes had failed. This directly resulted in the re-design of the Queenston
Height’s track to reduce the overall grade of the slope and angle of the turns.
The second safety measure was that all cars must be equipped with an emergency
brake. The laws surrounding the operation of public transportation were modified to include stricter penalties for any company that operated an overcrowded vehicle/vessel.
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Revision Date: Sept 12 2023
Originally Posted: March 2 2021
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