On This Day Trolley Crash Killed 6

It was on the evening of Monday, December 23rd, 1901 when 6 people lost their lives and another 10 or 12 were seriously injured. The daytime temperature that day never rose above 33 degrees. As evening began to fall, temperatures were headed back down into the 20's causing parts of the trolley tracks to freeze over.

The trolley made it's way up the North side of Lehigh Mountain (as South Mountain was called back then) after leaving Allentown where it reached the top of the crest. As it began to make its way down the South slope towards Coopersburg it began to lose traction. The motorman applied the brakes to no avail. The trolley began to slide down faster and faster until reaching a speed of nearly 50mph before going into the curve at the bottom.

The car flipped over and was sheared in two by a guy wire for a utility pole. The motorman was only bruised and the conductor had his left leg cut. Six others weren't so lucky.

SOURCE: GenDisasters.com


Photo Courtesy: LANTA News

Wikipedia lists two others. The most severe occurred North of Norristown in July 1942 near Germantown Avenue which killed 12 people (including the motorman) after it collided head-on with a freight trolley.



Photo Courtesy: LANTA News

If anyone's still interested I have four other posts concerning Lehigh Valley Transit Trolleys. I have a post HERE. Another one HERE. A third one HERE. And yet another HERE