Point Ellice Bridge Disaster

On May 26, 1896 in Victoria, British Columbia, a streetcar crowded with over 120 holidaymakers on their way to attend celebrations of Queen Victoria’s birthday, crashed through Point Ellice Bridge into the Gorge Waterway. 55 men, women and children were killed in the accident [Henry Ewert, "The Story of the B. C. Electric Railway Company", North Vancouver, Whitecap Books, 1986] , making this one of the worst disasters in British Columbian history.

On June 12, 1896, a coroner’s jury concluded that the Tramway operator, The Consolidated Electric Railway Company, was responsible for the disaster because it allowed its streetcar to be loaded with a much greater weight of passengers than the bridge was designed to support. The city council of Victoria was found to be guilty of contributory negligence because the bridge had not been well maintained, and because council failed to take steps to restrict the traffic on the bridge to within safe limits. The design and construction of the bridge was also found to have been poor, especially in that the specifications called for weldless iron to be used but that the ironwork was almost all welded.

References

External links

*Reprint of articles from the Victoria Colonist of May and June 1896 http://mypage.direct.ca/r/robinl/awfulplunge.html