Craig Allen Cleve - The Green Hornet Street Car Disaster

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Book:
The Green Hornet Street Car Disaster
Author:
Craig Allen Cleve
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Genre:
Books / Detective and thriller
Year:
2012
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As rush hour came to a close on the evening of May 25, 1950, one of Chicagos new fast, colorful, streamlined streetcarsknown as a Green Hornetslammed into a gas truck at State Street and 62nd Place. The Hornets motorman allegedly failed to heed the warnings of a flagger attempting to route it around a flooded underpass, and the trolley, packed with commuters on their way home, barreled into eight thousand gallons of gasoline. The gas erupted into flames, poured onto State Street, and quickly engulfed the Hornet, shooting flames two hundred and fifty feet into the air. More than half of the passengers escaped the inferno through the rear window, but thirty-three others perished, trapped in front of the streetcars back door, which failed to stay open in the ensuing panic. It was Chicagos worst traffic accident everand the worst two-vehicle traffic accident in US history.

Unearthing a forgotten chapter in Chicago lore, The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster tells the riveting tale of this calamity. Combing through newspaper accounts as well as the Chicago Transit Authoritys official archives, Craig Cleve vividly brings to life this horrific catastrophe. Going beyond the historical record, he tracks down individuals who were present on that fateful day on State and 62nd: eyewitnesses, journalists, even survivors whose lives were forever changed by the accident. Weaving these sources together, Cleve reveals the remarkable combination of natural events, human error, and mechanical failure that led to the disaster, and this moving history recounts themas well as the conflagrations human dramain gripping detail.

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2012 by Northern Illinois University Press

Published by the Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb, Illinois 60115

Manufactured in the United States using acid-free paper.

Design by Julia Fauci

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cleve, Craig Allen.

The Green Hornet streetcar disaster / Craig Allen Cleve.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-87580-454-5 (cloth : acid-free paper) ISBN 978-1-60909-058-6 (e-book)

1. Chicago (Ill.)History20th century. 2. DisastersIllinoisChicagoHistory
20th century. 3. ExplosionsIllinoisChicagoHistory20th century. 4. Traffic accidentsIllinoisChicagoHistory20th century. 5. Traffic fatalitiesIllinoisChicagoHistory20th century. 6. Electric railroad accidentsIllinoisChicagoHistory20th century. 7. Truck accidentsIllinoisChicagoHistory20th century. 8. GasolineTransportationIllinoisChicagoHistory20th century. 9. Chicago (Ill.)Biography. I. Title.

F548.5.C66 2012

977.311dc23

2011052667

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Epilogue

Appendix: Victims of CTA Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Preface

It has been more than 50 years since trolleys last clattered down Chicago streets carrying passengers to work or home or other destinations. Like phantoms, they appear in nostalgic stories told by parents and grandparents to children and grandchildrenstories of cherished trips to movie theaters, museums, and ballparks, all of which began and ended with a ride on a trolley.

This is a sad story, lost over time with the passing of the generations. Like an urban legend, it has been kept alive on barstools and told around kitchen tables, its facts often embellished at the discretion of the teller.

My mother was the first person to tell it to me.

One Sunday afternoon when I was still in elementary school, she happened to flip through the magazine section of the Sunday papers when a particular photograph caught her eye. Take a look at this, she said to me, knowing my fascination with history even then. She handed me the magazine, folded in half, with the picture in question next to her thumb.

It was a black-and-white photo of something that looked like an old bus. It was cast sideways, blocking traffic on the street, and it looked like it had been through a war. All of its windows were broken, and the doors had been ripped apart. Debris littered the ground. Fire trucks and firemen were everywhere. Something awful had occurred.

It was a streetcar crash that happened in 1950 or 51, my mother began. A streetcar crashed into a gas truck. There was an explosion. A lot of people died.

She went on to tell me how my grandfather used to take that streetcar route every day, and how on the day of the accident, he had been called back into the bosss office and ended up leaving work a few minutes later than usual. She intimated that had he left work at his regular time, he might have been on that trolley.

I grew up believing that fate had intervened. Like the person who lets the full elevator car pass by because his gut tells him to do so, I thought my grandfather had somehow cheated death that night.

As a research tool, family lore is not without its flaws. Yet, the story stayed with me all my life, and after my first book was published, I decided to chase an old, forgotten Chicago ghost. It wasnt hard to find.

Near the end of the evening rush hour on May 25, 1950, one of the Chicago Transit Authoritys new streamlined trolleys, known as Green Hornets, collided with a gas truck on State Street at 62nd Place. The motorman of the trolley apparently failed to heed the warnings of a flagger positioned in front of a switch that was about to detour him around an obstacle.

The trolley, loaded nearly to capacity, entered the switch at an excessive speed, then slammed into the gas truck, which had yet to make its first delivery of the day and was hauling 8,000 gallons of gasoline. The gas caught fire and poured onto State Street, completely surrounding the trolley in a matter of seconds.

Miraculously, more than half of the passengers were able to escape the inferno by climbing out a rear window. But 33 people died, most of them crammed in front of the trolleys rear doors, which failed to stay open in the panic.

It was Chicagos worst traffic accident, and the worst two-vehicle traffic accident in U.S. history. Yet ask a Chicagoan about the Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster, and youll likely get a puzzled look in response.

It was a well-documented event in both the local and national press. A month-long Coroners Inquest determined the causes of the accident, and recommendations were made to the CTA and the Chicago City Council.

But unlike other Chicago disasters, very little changed as a result. Safety adaptations were made to the trolleys within a year, but most recommendations and calls for reform fell on deaf ears.

At the time of the accident, streetcars in Chicago were on the way out, and they were gone entirely within the decade. Without trolleys to remind them of what happened, the accident gradually receded from the collective consciousness. Perhaps more than any other major calamity in Chicago history, the Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster has survived for 60 years on hearsay and legend.

In the fall of 2004, I began to compile information related to the accident through newspaper archives and documents provided by the Chicago Transit Authority. Shortly after, I searched for and found individuals who were there that day or whose lives were forever changedeyewitnesses, journalists, family members, and even survivors.

Together, they told a remarkable story about an accident thatlike so many others before and sincenever should have happened. It took a phenomenal combination of natural events, human error, and mechanical failure to create the circumstances necessary for disaster. Every causal factor aligned perfectly, and nearly everything that could have gone wrong, did.

Hours in developing, it was over in less than five minutes for each of the 33 casualties, most of whom died within inches of safety and before any rescue squads could arrive to help them.

They were ordinary peoplean accurate cross-section of working-class Chicago in 1950: men and women, old and young, black and white. They were teachers and clerks, domestic servants and housewives, blue collar and white collar. Almost all of them were heading home after a typical work day.

They ought to be remembered.

The elements of catastrophe are always with us. We revisit tragedy not because of some maudlin impulse, but because we are appalled by it and wish to learn from it. In a history filled with tragic loss, the Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster is one of Chicagos harshest lessons.

I have been diligent in my research, and I believe the events happened, to the best of my knowledge and efforts, as I portray them. Any errors or oversights are entirely my own.

Authors Note With rare exception, newspapers in 1950 referred to street railway vehicles as trolleys. Most Chicagoans who rode them remember them as streetcars. I have chosen to use both terms, and for the purposes of this book the reader should consider them synonymous.

Acknowledgments

Sixty years have elapsed since the Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster, and with the passing of each year, the number of people directly associated with the event gets smaller. I was most fortunate to talk with many people who were there that day in one capacity or another. This book could not exist without their contributions.

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