Malbone Street Wreck Remembered 100 Years Later

Wreckage of the Malbone Street Tunnel in 1918

Empire Boulevard in Brooklyn was once known as Malbone Street. On November 1, 1918, at least 93 people were killed when a five car train heading towards Prospect Park Station derailed as it was heading into a tunnel. There are no markers or reminders of the crash anywhere near Brooklyn - the City went as far as renaming the street to Empire Boulevard. There was never an independent investigation of the cause of the crash, or any criminal convictions. But, many believe the tragedy resulted from two things: an inexperienced train operator and the fact that the switchman who were in charge of changing the tracks were on strike.

On Thursday, MTA head Andy Byford joined lawmakers and transit worker to honor the victims of the 100-year-old crash at a wreath-laying ceremony. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will seek a location for a permanent plaque commemorating one of the worst subway crashes in the history of the city.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle described the carnage of train derailment the following day, November 2, 1918:

“Of the dead, sixty-seven bodies have thus far been identified. There are still in the morgue of the Kings County Hospital and at several hospitals throughout the borough thirty bodies awaiting identification.  The work of identifying them is proceeding very slowly, for many of them were mangled virtually beyond recognition, clothing and even jewelry and other personal belongings, that would otherwise serve to make them known, was torn from their bodies.

All of this — the ninety-seven dead [the final count would be 93], the long list of injured, the terrible mutilation of the bodies, the fell blow that has come upon hundreds of homes — gives but a faint hint of the greatest transportation disaster in the history of the city, a catastrophe utterly without precedent, a blow that has come with such stunning force upon all of Brooklyn and especially the Flatbush section, as actually to stagger the imagination.”

 

 

The day of the crash, The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers went on strike. To keep service running, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit company brought on non-union conductors. Edward Luciano, 23, was one of those conductors. He had barely trained more than 10 hours for the job, and was working past the rush-hour shift because his supervisor promised him $20 if he stayed on longer. Just before the accident, BRT signal operators had sent the train in the wrong direction. On top of this, Luciano's baby daughter had died a few days before from the Spanish flu. Miraculously, he survived the crash. He fled the scene, and when police later found him, he was in total shock. "He does not know how he managed to get out of the wreck, nor how he got home," reported the New York Times in 1918. "He says he has an indistinct recollection of having boarded a trolley car but cannot remember what car it was. He was seated in a chair, pale as death, when the detectives reached his home. He was very nervous and seemed to be on the verge of a collapse.”

Joe Raskin, author of "The Routes Not Taken: A Trip Through New York City's Unbuilt Subway System" and a former assistant director of government and community relations for the MTA's New York City Transit, says that the 1918 crash dramatically changed the city's approach to the transit system. Moves were made to improve worker rules, update signal systems, and switch over to steel train cars instead of wooden ones.

In the end, Edward Luciano was acquitted of manslaughter charges.

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