The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-10-29
A FEARFUL FATALITY.
A Passenger Train Tumbles
Into a Quarry.
BODIES BURNED TO A CRISP.
The Terrible Scenes-NO Clue 80
Many Of the Remains-A Mothers
Last Act
BODIES BURNED TO A CRISP.
Train Disaster.

limited passenger train on the Chicago,
Milwaukee & st. Paul Railroad, which
left here last night at 10 o'clock, was
derailed at Rio, when about three hours
out and thrown into an old stone
quarry. The particulars are hard to
get, but it is admitted at the general
office Of the company in this city that
one coach and three sleepers were
wrecked and five or six persons killed.
Physicians left this city on the early
tram for the scene of the disaster.
a. MT is now reported that out
of ten persons who occupied the passen-
ger coach, seven were killed. A gentle
man from Chicago and two children
from WlnOna were the only ones saved
from the passenger coach. None OF the
occupants of the sleepers were injured.
Nothing has yet been learned in regard
to the number of wounded.
Engineer Searle, at first reported
killed, was only slightly hurt. A pas
senger who was on thewrecked tr ain,
says the scenes after the accident were
narrowing. The passenger coach which,
he says, contained between fifteen and
twenty persons, was teleosCoped at
both ends and on fire, and the smoke
that enveloped the wreck prevented the
escaping. Passengers from the sleepers
gathered around the cars, but they were
poWerless to render assistance. Men
and women could be seen tearing their
hair in their agony Of the moment and
frightful screams issued from the death
trap. One heavy woman IN particular,
be says, tore up one of the seats with
almost superhuman strength and en-
deaVOred TO break her way out of the
flaming pyre, but her strength failed
her and she tell to the floor and met
horrible death. Only three persons
escaped from the car, Mr.. LoeWenbach
says, a man and two children. a man
was observed as he forced his way
through the ventilation on top of the
car with all his clothing on mis- body
from the waist downward burned off,
and his flesh roasted, and bleeding from
cuts inflicted by broken glass. Every
one of the wrecked cars were consumed
with the exception of the last sleeper
which was cut sway from the burning
wreck. All of the bodies of the victims
were burned in the wreck.
An Evening Wisconsin special from
Portage, Wis, says: Last night, soon
after midnight, the Westbound limited
| express was ditched at East Rio siding,
a small station about thirteen miles east
of this city. on the main line of the
| Chicago, Milwaukee and st. Paul Rail-
road. There was two side tracks
at the place, and at the time
the train was due there last
Right, both were occupied by
| freights, one by wild train and the
other by train No. Il, conductor II. P.
| Hankey, Of this city, which had just
pulled in from the west to allow the
| cd 70 n 4
and the conductor was at the head of
the train relying upon the brakeman
| to attend to the sw tch. One report
says the rear brakeman, whose bust
ness it was to close the switch alter
| the train, for some reason neglected
! altogether to do so. Tbs other and
more probable story is that he started
! back to close the switch but before he
could reach il, the limited, which does
not stop at any except large places,
came tearing down the grade at
fifty miles an hour, and left the rails at
the open switch. The siding is in cut,
where the road curves, so that the
switch light cannot be seen from the
east until the train is within few rods,
so the engineer OF the Limited conld not
see the switch light turned the wrong
way until too late to stop. The engine
/
brought up against the side of the cut,
toppling over; the baggage car and two
regular coaches followed, while four
sIeepers kept the rails. The engine and
cars that went off were badly smashed
and soon took fire from the st,ves.
! Engineer Little and Fireman Egan
crswIed out from under the loco
motive badly bruised and scalded.
! The baggageman had leg
broken. Al the passengers in the
sIeepers got out uniniured, except
slight bruises, but in one day coach
! thirteen were pinned in and literally
burned TO death. Many others were in
| iured by the severe shaking up. The
/ names of the victims are not yet known
here. The whole OF the limited, ex-
cepting one sleeper, which they were
able to uncouple and draw away, burned
up. Superintendent Collins was on the
eastbound passenger, No. 2, which was
waiting at the station q few. miles this
side of the wreck for the limited, and
was soon on the scene. A wrecklng
train with surgeons went from this city,
and did all possible to alleviate the
| suffering and save life. Conductor
Hankv. of the freight train, was so
demoralized BY the accident, the
responsibility of which rests on his
crew, and thus also on him, that he
took to the woods in despair, leaving
the train. He has always been a most
careful and efficient man, much
trusted by the company. 1t was a
most horrible and sickening spectacle,
the burning people making night
hideous with their screams, while by
ISLANDERS were unable to render
assistance. It was the worst
wreck ever known in the northwest.
The man who escaped had an arm
broken. and was otherwise bruised. He
lis now at Columbus, and is doing well.
A woman whose home is in Winona,
handed her two children out Of win
dow, and burned to death in the car.
Louis Brinker and Emil WolteTsdorf
OF Columbus, Wis. are among the dead.
The coroner is holding an inquest on
the charred trunks of the bodies, all
that is left of the Inflated travellers. The
burning of the baggage obliterates the
only clue 70 the identity Of the occu-
Dants OF the burned car, and il may
never be known TO q certainty how
many persisted in the wreck.