The Malbone Street Wreck
Below is a blog post I wrote for the Obscura Cyclimng Club’s Malbone Street Wreck Ride
Friday, November 1st, 1918 dawned with some rather tumultuous events happening worldwide, and in New York City. World War 1, which would end in less than 2 weeks, was raging across Europe. The 1918 Pandemic (1) would go on to kill 50 million people across the world by 1919.
In addition, a transit strike was called by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers that morning. At the time, the NYC Subway System was patchwork of private companies, not the (relatively coherent) state agency we see today. This led to many unsafe and inconsistent labor practices as each company was looking to scrape as much profit as possible.
Antonio Luciano
Into the mix was thrown 25 year old Antonio Luciano, know to his friends a “Billy Lewis” (2). Antonio was a clerical crew dispatcher who worked in the office of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT). Because of the strike, the BRT had to press untrained clerical staff into Train Operator (Motorman) positions in order to keep the trains moving,
Antonio, after working a 10 hour day shift, was given the task of driving the BRT rush hour train with 650 passengers from its depot in Manhattan at Park Row, over the Brooklyn Bridge and deep into Brooklyn. He was given less than 3 hours of classroom instruction, when the current standard to be be certified to operate a train was 90 hours of hands-on training.
In addition to his lack of training, Antonio had just buried his infant daughter 3 days earlier (his 2nd daughter to succumb to the Pandemic), and he himself was suffering from it’s symptoms.
The Train
Because of labor issues, replacement yard workers were responsible for creating and coupling trains in the yards before they started their routes. There were basically 2 kinds of cars; motor cars and coach cars. Motor cars contained the electrical traction motors that propelled the train, while the 1/2-as-heavy coach cars were without this equipment. Both cars carried passengers in an identical seating configuration.
The procedure was to alternate these cars on a typical 5-car train (motor-coach-motor-coach-motor) spreading out the power and evenly distributing the mas of the train. This particular train was incorrectly set up with a motor car, followed by 2 coach cars, and ending with 2 more motor cars. This would prove to be unbelievably catastrophic.
In addition, as was common at the time, the cars were of wooden construction, with no speedometers, no automatic “Dead Man’s Switch”, and no Anti-Climbers (devises affixed to train bumpers that eliminate them from telescoping into each other during a crash).
Subway Anti-Climbers, Photo from Jersey Mike
BRT Wooden Cars. Wikipedia
The Crash
Antonio was 100% unfamiliar with the route, and basically unfamiliar with operating a train. During the trek, he overshot many stations due to his lack of understanding of the braking systems, causing delays as he had to subsequently back the train into the missed stations. About a mile before the wreck, a replacement signal operator switched him to the wrong route (see BRT Subway Map, Location 1 ), as the train did not have operating signal lights. Correcting this issue took up more time.
BRT Subway Map, NYCSubway.org
This route is part of today’s Franklin Avenue Shuttle, but at the time was part of the BRT’s mainline service, taking commuters home from Manhattan, terminating at Coney Island. This particular tunnel and approach had only been opened a few weeks earlier (and would have given pause and caution to the most experienced motorman).
Because of how late the train was due to haphazard station stopping and signaling, it has been speculated that Luciano was looking to make up the time to impress his bosses and perhaps snag a coveted full-time spot as a motorman. He actually skipped the stop at Consumers Park (see BRT Subway Map, Location 2 ), and began the descent downhill to the Prospect Park Station (see BRT Subway Map, Location 3 ).
Signage at this new decline and tunnel cautioned motormen to a 6mph speed limit, but as the train had faulty lights (and it was twilight), this sign wasn’t visible. At this point in the route, the train goes from being “at-grade” to descending into an “open-cut” as it approached the tunnel. Witnesses in the packed train describe the train travelling at 30-40 mph at this time.
At 6:42pm, the train took the hill and sharp right turn into the tunnel at a deadly speed, The first (motor) car mostly made the turn, with its rear wheels derailing. Cars 2 and 3 (coach cars) were hurtled against the concrete structure of the tunnel, to the left and got smashed to wooden bits. This situation was made more deadly as Cars 4 and 5 were motor cars and their extra weight caused great damage to the cars in front of them. A vast majority of the 93 fatalities occurred in these 2 cars.
Crash scene, Smithsonian Magazine
Lead Car relatively undamaged, Car 2 behind it obliterated, Wikipedia
Because of the tricky location, it took rescuers 45 minutes to fully get to the site. The closest hospitals were full of Pandemic patients, so nearby Ebbets Filed was used to triage victims and as a morgue. The third rail, which powers the train, had been turned off automatically by the crash. Remote operators, not knowing there was a crash and thinking the power shutdown was labor related sabotage, tuned the power back on, causing more fatalities and hampering rescuers.
Although records vary, it is believed that between 93-103 people died in the crash.
Aftermath
Trials and inquiries were held in 1919, and essentially everyone (including a totally uninjured Antonio Luciano) was acquitted. The main trial focused on the mechanical issues with the train, so many of the supporting issues for the crash were never entered into testimony/record.
Antonio Luciano changes his name to Anthony Lewis, moving first to Long Island and then on to Arizona, where he died in 1985 at age 91 (his granddaughter had no idea of this part of his life at the time of his death).
The BRT paid out millions of dollars in damages, went bankrupt, and was gathered up into the BMT (which today is represented by the J/Z, L, M, N, Q, R and W Lines. The track that the crash happened on it still in use, although not for passenger service.
Track on left no longer used. Track on right currently used. Image by Joe Nocella
Image by Joe Nocella
This crash triggered many safety reforms. All wooden cars were phased out within 10 years,. All cars were outfitted with speedometers, headlight and auto-braking systems. Signaling was upgraded throughout the system.
Most ominously, NYC renamed the street where the Prospect Park Station was from Malbone Street to Empire Boulevard (although a small piece of Malbone Street remains about 1 mile away).
In 2019, a plaque was installed at the Prospect Avenue Station to commeriate the crash.
Footnotes
(1) …the so-called “Spanish flu,” a pandemic in 1918 and 1919 that killed up to 50 million people worldwide. Many Americans…seem to believe…that this influenza outbreak began in Spain. However, the first recorded case was in Kansas. As the flu spread through the U.S. and European countries during World War I, fighting nations actively censored coverage of the outbreaks. Spain, which was neutral, stood out because it accurately reported the outbreak, leading to the perception that the flu was concentrated there. (Meanwhile in Spain, it was known as the “French flu.”), TIME Magazine
(2) Many immigrants “Americanized” their given names during this time period to escape prejudice and stigmatization.