A train consisting of five cars left Atlantic City over the West Jersey Railroad bearing a special excursion of members of the Improved Order of Red Men and their friends from Bridgeton and Salem, New Jersey, and had reached the crossing of the Reading Railroad when it was struck by the 5:40 down express train from Philadelphia.
His engine had barely cleared the crossing when the locomotive of the Reading train, which left Philadelphia at 5:40 pm, struck the first car full in the centre, throwing it far off the track in a nearby ditch, and submerging it completely.
A few minutes after the collision, the boiler of the Reading locomotive exploded, scalding several people to death and casting boiling spray over many of the injured passengers.
The road leading to the collision was a constant scene of hackney carriages, omnibuses, bicycles, and all kinds of vehicles, while thousands of pedestrians hurried along the path to render what assistance they could or to satisfy their curiosity.
The wounded were gathered together quickly and carried by train and wagon to the Atlantic City Hospital, where six of them died soon after their arrival.
During the first night after the crash, the streets in the vicinity of the Excursion House and the City Hospital, as well as the road leading to the scene of the accident, were packed with people anxious to learn the latest news.
The Bridgeton and Salem excursionists who escaped injury were brought back to Atlantic City and sent home on a special train several hours later in the evening.
The wife of Edward Farr, the Reading engineer who died while on the job, and was found with one hand on the throttle and the other on the brake, when informed of the accident and of her husband's death, was unable to withstand the shock, and fell to the floor dead.
His action in running at a speed of forty-five miles an hour past a danger signal seemed inexplicable to those present at the inquest.