The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-01-24
,.,.ne. md s,nsunltics.


TERRIBLE ACCIDENT on TuE VIRGINIA MID
LAND RAILROAD NEAR RockfIsH DEPOT
TWO MEN KILLED OUTRIGHT AND SEVEN Sc
tl0UsLY WOUNDED.
[spccla, telegram TO the Dlspatch.I
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, January 23.-A
terrible accident occurred on the Virginia
Midland road at 8 A. NJ. to-day. A mate
rial train. consisting OF an engine, coal
car, nine flats. and a caboose, left Char
lottesyilIe al G A. NJ. to-day, and proceeded
in the direction OF Lynchburg. On arriving
at Covesville IL received orders 10 make the
next station in limited time. Proceed
ing. the train had gained speed OF about
thirty-6ve miles an hour. When it arrived
at bridge over a creek within half mile
OF Rockdsh depot. and In rounding sharp
curve In cut just before reaching The
bridge. large rock was discovered lying
on the track. which had fallen from the
cut during the night. but az the train was
going at IN unusual rate VI speed it was
impossible to check up, and the engine
passed over till ii struck the ire-boX, when
10y some fortuitous circumstance, mounted
the rails again and passed on over the
bridge. The engineer looked back aud saw
that some OF the cars were of, when be
threw open bis engine and broke away
from the heavy coa-car 10 which it was at.
tached, thereby saving himself and his en-
eIue. At the same moment the remaining
cars sWeryed from the track, some to the
right and some TO the left, tumLling down
the high embankmc1t-soiHe Of the trucks
becoming detached and rolling seYcnty-tivo
or hundred yards away. Captain viii
Hanson, who was in Charge Of tue train,
seeing the imminent danger, endeayored Ia
save his life by jumping, but be jumped TO
his death. When discovered his neck
was found TO be broken. and it Is
thought that one Of the rails with
which the ear was loaded struck him
on the back Of the neck. He lived in
Alexandra. and leaves wife and two chill
dreD. Captain Luckett, diyislon-ma>ter.
who was on the train, was thrown down the
embankment, and pinned TO the earth by
heavy iron rails across his legs. Strange TO
say, his injuries were slight. A colored
man named Randall Randolph was buried
beneath a car and bad TO be dug out. His
feet were bent backward to bis head, and
life was extinct when discovered. Seven
other colored men were more or less seri-
ou>ly wounded. One Of them had bis leg
amputated above the knee, the operation
being performed by DR.. Dabney, Of this
place, assisted by surgeons from Lynch
burg, Loyineston, and elsewhere, who
promptly repaired to the assistance Of the
sufferers.
The bridge over this creek is about ninety
feet high and perhaps fifty feet across, and
is approached by ILLS from both sides taken
from cuts Immediately preceding. An ac-
cident OF ans kind here must neccs> arly
seriously endinger human life, and the Won
der is that any escaped.
Every attention was bestowed upon the
wounded, and the body of Captain VIII
hanson was tendcrly cared for and shipped
upon the north-bound mail train to his
friends in Alexandria.
The casualty was purely an accident, un-
foresecn and wholly unavoidable, and no
blame can be attached to anyone.
The regular trains were delayed only
about two hours.
lBy Associated Press
4 MATERIAL TRAIN on THE VIRGINIA MlDLAND
ROAD THROWN DOWN An EMBANKMENT-
THREE PERSONS KILLED AND SEVEN sER-
OUSLY WOUNDED.
CHARLOTTESVILLE January .3.-This
morning a material tram on the Virginia
Midland road. at Rockfish Station, eighteen
miles south OF Charlottesville, ian of the
track at the bridge and was thrown down
an embankmcnt Of fifty feet, killing Con-
ductor Dabney Wilson and two brakcmen.
and seriously wOunding Captain II. ID.
Luckett and six TOad-hands. Six ears were
completely wrecked.
FATAL SHOOTING AFFAIR At A DANCE.
CIXCINNATI. January % "A dispatch
from independence. Mo-, says; On We'd
ne,dav night Green Cri, p, John and George
Tate. went 10 Il dance at the house Of Squire
Uankenburg. AZ Lone Jack, to which they
were not invited, and began shooting at
Uankcnhurg, who returned their tire, shoot
ing Crisp mortaily and badly wounding
George Tate in the right thigh. The shoot