The Portland daily press., 1869-12-30
A Terrible Railroad Accident.

From the Wheeling wv. W IntelHgencer
of Saturday last, we condense an account of
the collision on the Baltimore and Ohio rail-
road, briefly mentioned at the time of its oc-
curence by telegraph. 1t was a frightful acci-
dent. The trains colliding were the "Cmcin-
natl Express" coming west, and the "Maip
going east The collision occurred at place
called Millfall, a couple of miles west of Bur
ton, in very short curve. The trains were
west very iast) and the locomotives were
within fifty yards of each other before either
was discovered from the other train. q The en-
gineman on the train east sounded two faint
whistles, but in less time than it takes to
write the words the trains rushed upon each
other with fearful crash. The engneman,
fireman, express messenger and little boy in
the car with the latter, sprang from the
train east, and all escaped without serious in
jury. y The engineman, ,McGaban, and the fire.
man, Vineland, of the other train, sprang off
and both were severely hurt Ross, baggage
master on the train east, sprang to the brake
at the rear end of his car when the alarm was
sounded, and was caught between the wreck,
his leg being crushed by the iron railing of
the platform. McGahan was thrown over
once or twice and fell, striking his head on
the rocks cutting it fearfully. He plunged on
down a rocky bank, and received numerous
cuts and bruises. His most serious injury is
sprained or stove-up ankle. Vineyard was
much Jared and bruised. One of his knees
had piece of bone scalloped out by a sharp
rock.
William A. James, of this city, mail agent
on the train east, received some severe inju-
ries, and escaped with his life, as all ON the
ground say, as if by miracle. When the
alarm was sounded, he glanced out and saw
k,,ts
like the rest, he remained in the car. In an
instant the car in front crushed through his
car, knocking him senseless by blow on the
temple. The floor of the car passed over
him, but he was driven by the debris of both
cars, hot stove among the rest, into the bag
gage apartment of his car. The mail car
was complete wreck, being crushed and
| broken into thousand fragments. For some
| ten minutes, as Mr.. James was nowhere to be
| seen, he was supposed to be dead. He was
| lying unconscious in the wreck, and on re-
covering his senses, crawled out. He had
severe confusion and numerous small cuts on
| the head, two fingers on the left hand were
crushed, the end of the ore-fnger being torn
| off; his clothes were tom and sticking full of
| splinters and he was cut and bruised pretty
much all over. In addition to this he seems
to have been in momentary contact with the
| stove, and received burn on the forehead.
|
and although the spliptered wood in contact
once began to smoke, it was Immediately ex-
tinguished, and the horrors of fire avoided.
Had the wreck taken fire quickly, Mr.. James
! must have PcrisLvd
| So far as known, no other persons were
hurt on either train. The mail agent on the
train west, Mr.. Robert Hall, escaped uninjur-
| ed. His car was raised up bodily and driven
forward over the express car, tender and loco
motive, till it rested on top of the locomotive
| of the eastern-bound train. From this giddy
| perch some fifteen feet from the ground, Mr..
Hall climbed down without a scratch. In the
rear of the express and mail cars, in the
| western-bound train, were two oyster cars,
loaded with holiday bivalves for Cincinnati.
These cars were smashed all to pieces, the
barrels of oysters in liquor and the cases OF
cans crushed and scattered in every direction.
Even small cans were broken open. A coffin
in the express car was thrown distance of
several yards, and the outside coffin stripped
| of. In the train east were two freight cars
forward of the express and mail. These, too,
were torn to fragments. 1t was the fortunate
interposition of so many cars in each train
forward of the passenger cars that saved the
latter, the only injury to passenger car be-
ing that the forward end of the smoking car
of the trail west was crushed in. Not sim
gle passenger, so far as known, received any
| injury.