The Nome Nugget

NEARLY 200 DEAD, 700 INJURED IN JAMAICA AS EXCURSION TRAIN PLUNGES OVER EMBANKMENT

MANDEVILLE, Jamaica, (AP)- The smell of death hung heavy over this little Caribbean mountain resort yesterday as burial services were rushed for nearly 200 Jamaicans killed in the wreck of a Roman Catholic excursion train.

It was one of the worst disasters in railroad history. The 12-coach train was packed with nearly 1,500 Roman Catholics returning to Kingston from a religious pilgrimage and holiday outing at Montego Bay, on Jamaica's north coast.

Nine coaches derailed and plunged over a 100-foot embankment near Kendal, five miles from Mandeville.

The count of the dead reached 176 last night. The Catholic bishop of Jamaica, the Most Rev. John J. McEleny of Woburn, Massachusetts, estimated it might rise.

Torrential rain hampered the search for additional dead.

Nearly 700 persons were reported injured. About 500 crowded the hospitals in Mandeville, at nearby Spalding and in Kingston.

Many were put two to a bed. Doctors and nurses were rushed to the hospitals to work around the clock.

Most of the victims were young people, between 16 and 30.

Bodies of the dead lay under a huge banyan-like tree behind the Mandeville hospital yard. Bright lights strung on wires burned throughout the night to aid relatives and friends in the task of identification.

Acting Governor John Stow and Chief Minister Norman Manley hurried to the wreck and ordered an immediate investigation, to be headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

There was no immediate explanation of the cause of the wreck, although unconfirmed reports said the first coach which jumped the track had faulty wheels which had been inspected earlier on the trip.

Early reports said the train was pulled by two diesels which came uncoupled from the following cars. Later, however, it was reported the first passenger coach broke away from two freight cars and the locomotive ahead and hit a culvert.