Book talk with Author Dr. Mary Jane Kuffner-Hirt
Dr. Mary Jane Kuffner-Hirt is both a genealogist and author of “The Mt. Washington Transit Tunnel Disaster”. Now retired from teaching and management positions at IUP and city and state government, she applies her research skills to historical and genealogical research.
About the book: On Christmas Eve 1917, an overcrowded, out-of-control streetcar exited the Mount Washington tunnel, crashing into pedestrians. Twenty-three were killed and more than eighty injured in the worst transit incident in Pittsburgh history. The crash scene on Carson Street was chaotic as physicians turned the railway offices into a makeshift hospital and bystanders frantically sought to remove the injured and strewn bodies from the wreckage. Most of the victims, many women and children, were from the close-knit neighborhoods of Knoxville, Beltzhoover and Mount Oliver. In the aftermath, public outrage over the tragedy led to criminal prosecution, civil suits and the bankruptcy of the Pittsburgh Railways Company, which operated the service.
Dr. Kuffner-Hirt will have copies of the book available for $12.50. Registration is not required and the program is free.
Masks, for all attendees, are strongly encouraged.