Word: streetcars
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...under a bridge out on the sprawling South Side. It forced a trucker named Mel Wilson to drive slowly as he hauled 8,000 gallons of gasoline into the city in a heavy truck & trailer rig. It kept Loop crowds huddled in doorways until just before Chicago Transit Authority streetcar 7078 came by. Then the rain ended, and No. 7078-one of a speedy new type which Chicagoans call "Green" Hornets"-was quickly jammed...
...Wilson's gasoline truck rumbled north toward the Loop and the crowded streetcar clanged south on State Street almost as if they were guided by an evil hand. Both got to a rail turnoff near 63rd Street at the same instant. A flagman waved a warning at the streetcar-a switch had been opened to detour trolley traffic around the flooded pavement ahead. But No. 7078 did not stop...
Trapped Inside. Within seconds, streams of blazing gasoline were running down the tracks and flaming across the pavement to the gutters. Towering sheets of fire burst up around the gushing truck; they puffed into the shattered front of the streetcar almost before the dazed and frightened passengers had recovered from the shock of the collision. Screaming, cursing, they piled toward the rear of the car, clotted there in a clawing, trampling mass...
Tolling the Dead. An hour passed before the gasoline finally burned itself out. In the silence which followed, firemen and policemen advanced on the blackened streetcar, hacked its doors open. Then, faces set, they began carrying out blackened bodies which were stacked like cordwood on the rear platform. A crowd of 15,000 which watched from behind fire lines began counting aloud, as each corpse was removed. Thirty-three had died; 40 had been injured. It was the worst city traffic accident in U.S. history...
...Milwaukee, George Hauf, arrested for drunkenness, was asked by police why he was riding a streetcar early Tuesday morning without any pants, explained that he thought it was Monday...