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Hightstown rail accident

1833 in New JerseyAccidents and incidents involving Camden and Amboy RailroadDerailments in the United StatesJohn Quincy AdamsMercer County, New Jersey
November 1833 eventsRailway accidents and incidents in New JerseyRailway accidents in 1833

The "Hightstown" rail accident occurred on the Camden and Amboy Railroad between Hightstown, New Jersey and Spotswood on November 8, 1833, just two months after horses were replaced by steam locomotives on the line. It is the earliest recorded train accident involving the death of passengers in America.The train had been travelling from South Amboy to Bordentown at a speed of 35 mph (56 km/h), when despite having stopped "to oil the wheels" and slowing to 20 mph (32 km/h), a journal box overheated (a condition known as hot box) and caught fire, causing an axle to break on one of the carriages, derailing and overturning it. All but one of the 24 passengers it carried were injured; one was killed outright and another died later from his injuries. Among the injured was Cornelius Vanderbilt, who broke a leg and vowed never to travel by train again, although he later broke his vow and eventually became a railway magnate, owning the New York Central Railroad, among others. Another passenger was Congressman and former US President John Quincy Adams, who escaped injury, but described the accident in his diary as "the most dreadful catastrophe that ever my eyes beheld". Irish actor Tyrone Power was also aboard the train and recorded the accident in his two-volume journal Impressions of America.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Hightstown rail accident (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Hightstown rail accident
Mercer Street,

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N 40.26387 ° E -74.53331 °
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Mercer Street 449
08520
New Jersey, United States
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East Windsor, New Jersey
East Windsor, New Jersey

East Windsor is a township in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located at the cross-roads between the Delaware Valley region to the southwest and the Raritan Valley region to the northeast, the township is an outer-ring suburb of New York City in the New York Metropolitan area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, but directly borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and is part of the Federal Communications Commission's Philadelphia Designated Market Area. Since East Windsor is situated at the confluence of several major highways that serve both the major cities of New York City and Philadelphia, and even the local commercial hubs of nearby Freehold, Princeton, and the state capital of Trenton, the community has been a longtime residential, commercial, and industrial hub in the heart of Central New Jersey.As of the 2020 United States census, East Windsor's population was 30,045, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 2,855 (+10.5%) from the 27,190 recorded at the 2010 census, which in turn reflected an increase of 2,271 (+9.1%) from the 24,919 counted in the 2000 census.Both East Windsor and West Windsor were formed when Windsor Township was split on February 9, 1797, while the area was still part of Middlesex County. It was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798, as one of New Jersey's initial group of 104 townships. Portions of the township were taken to form Hightstown borough (March 5, 1853, within East Windsor; became independent c. 1894) and Washington Township (March 11, 1860, and known as Robbinsville Township since 2007). The township was named for Windsor Township, which was named for Windsor, England.