October 28 – Wilkes-Barre & Wyoming Valley Traction Company Trolley Car No. 220 left Public Square at 2:50 PM on October 30, 1908, bound for Luzerne Borough with stops along Wyoming Avenue in Kingston, Dorrancetown and Forty Fort.
Among the 34 passengers on 220 was Thomas Gregory, of East End, Wilkes-Barre, on his way to Luzerne to inform the family of his wife’s death at Mercy Hospital the day before.
As No. 220 crossed the Pettebone switch at Dorrancetown it collided with an empty coal gondola being pushed by a DL&W.
“The accident caused the greatest excitement and confusion in this city and on the west side and those who viewed the wreck consider it a wonder that twenty were not killed. Although several were seriously injured, only three were serious enough to be transported to the wreckage. City Hospital,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported on October 31, 1908.
Gregory suffered lacerations to his head and legs and was one of three passengers taken to the city hospital.
The empty coal gondola being pushed backwards struck the trolley car which overturned on its side and traveled down Wyoming Avenue.
‘The tram stopped at the intersection and the conductor went ahead. The train entered the crossing and was noticed by the conductor, but due to a misunderstanding and the motorman started to cross, not realizing his danger until it was too late, the leading gondola hit the trolley car and overturned it with its load human cargo. “, swept it across the avenue and smashed it like an eggshell against a large tree and a telegraph pole at its base,” the Record reported.
The sound of the crash could be heard hundreds of meters away and rescuers rushed to the accident scene from all directions. Traction company officials were immediately notified and an emergency car and doctors rushed to the scene of the accident.
“Noah Pettebone, who lives at the intersection, opened his home to some of the wounded and others were attended to at the Myers drug store,” the Record reported.
Motorist Percy Linskill panicked because he thought many of the passengers were dead.
Linskill and trolley car conductor Ralph Biannet gave statements to traction company officials.
Biannet wrote that he got off the trolley on the right side when the car stopped about 10 feet from the Pettebone intersection. Biannet looked to his left and saw no cars, and he looked to his right and saw empty coal cars approaching and a brakeman on the lead coal gondola.
Biannet claimed he motioned for the brakeman to “come forward” and was surprised to see the trolley moving forward.
Linskill wrote that he looked at his conductor, Biannet, and thought he heard “all right” and “come ahead” and began crossing the Pettebone crossing when he looked to his left and saw coal gondolas coming toward him, the Record reported .
“Hundreds viewed the scene of the wreck during the afternoon and there as a general expression of astonishment and amazement that most of the passengers were not killed,” the newspaper reported.
Several civil lawsuits have been filed against the Wilkes-Barre & Wyoming Valley Traction Co. for negligence, including one lawsuit brought by Ida E. Polsler and her daughter, Edith M. Polsler, both of whom were injured.
The mother and daughter had just boarded 220 in Dorrancetown to head to Luzerne Borough to board another train bound for Harveys Lake.
