The trains were taking home members of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America from a 20,000-person rally in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

Each train had between 8 and 12 cars and was headed by two engines to cope with the steep grades between Penn Haven and Hazle Creek Junctions through what is now the Lehigh Gorge State Park.

As the sixth train passed through, it stopped 600 or 700 feet (180 or 210 meters) beyond the station as there was no 'All Clear' signal displayed ahead.

An attempt was made to withdraw the engine from the third car but brought 'such awful cries of distress that it was abandoned'.

[8] In all, 64 were killed and scores injured; 32 of the dead were from the small village of Pleasant Valley (recently renamed Avoca) or Moosic and attended St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, many were teenage members of the Drum and Bugle Corps of the St. Aloysius Society.