The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-08-26
A YEAR OLD CALF
CAUSE OF A FREIGHT WRECK
NEAR RADFORD.
THREE KILLED AND Two INJURED,
Graphic Description OF the Accident
and Scene ofthe Wreck-HHOw IL &C.
curred-Remarkabie Escape of j. s..
G0ans.

Goans.
WILLIAM Cook, 80 years old, mar
ried, killed.
M1cHEAL JEANETTE, 40 years old
killed.
RAFAEL NEMERI, 25 years old, killed
GEORGE GARKEE, fireman, slightly
Wounded.
J. S. GoANs, brick mason, seriously
wounded
This is the complete list of casual
ties of one of the most remarkable
accidents in the history of railroads
the accident. He was worth perhaps
Asmall yearling calf was the cause oil
SIS, and $1,000 would not cover the
loss to the railroad company, besides
the lives sent suddenly to the I'M
known.
The scene of the accident was on
the Norfolk and Western railroad
about four miles east of Radford.
There is a little valley there, and the
railroad runs around one of the hills
that shut it in, while a clear brook
makes its way round the base of the
other. Down in the valley just be-
low the embankment over which the
railroad winds was little shanty oc-
cupied by fourteen Italian laborers
on the double tracking of
the road at this point.
Nearly all of them were at home
on Sunday night when engine No. 3,
drawing thirty-two freight cars, came
rushing down the grade from Chris
on the way to Radford. 1t
was not regular train, but a special
freight in charge of Conductor Haines,
who had orders TO carry the train to
the Rddford yard, where it was to he
made up the following day. He was
on special duty, and the distance to
be run was so short that the engineer
not think it worth while to turn
his engine around.
LII WAS upOut Gov " CloSh witch lilS
train pulled by the station at Chris.
Conductor Haines was in
the caboose, and the crew were on
the last car. The train backed out
of the station, and commence it's
fatal run. Just here the grade i'll
clines downward considerably. and
the train was running at the rate of
miles an hour when the
tender struck the yearing as it was
crossing the road. The tender was
derailed and the immense pressure
behind sent it SPINNING round. The
rear car cleared the track, but the
part next the engine was caught in
the latter's mighty wheels, and the
fierce battle of the s.eam-lifed ma
chine began.
1t was not of moments duration.
The wheels Of the tender were stuck
fast and the locomotive could not dis
lodge them, and in its attempt it
turned complete sumersault, strik-
ing on the side next the steep cut. AS
the engine reversed itself and reared
up in the air the fireman JUMP !, but
Engineer Cock stuck to his posi- and
paid the forfeit by giving up his life.
The engine pinned him TO the ground,
crushed his head and shoulders into
the soft earth and left his feet and
one free arm beating nervous pit-a-
pat on the bed of the road. His death
must have been instantaneous, the
pit.a-pat being only the contraction
OF his muscles.
On came the cars. They jumped
the track on the other side and went
tumbling down the fifteen-foot en-
and over the little shanty
of the Italians. At the first inkling
of dancer they had turned and fled
towards the little brook fifty feet
away. But two of them never reached
it, and several did with bloody gar
ments. Michael Jarnette was in the
house at the time; the others were
out of doors Jarnette did not get
out. A piece of wood pinned him
down across the throat and chest, and
he was literally choked to death. His
face was black and his eyes started
from their sockets when the rescuing
party dug him out.
Nemeri was killed nearly forty pa
ces from the shanty, He must have
been struck down by piece of tim
Der, and then a great coal car tum-
bled down the embankment and
crushed him into an unacceptable
mass of flesh and bones. Eight OF
the thirty-two cars left the track and
completely hid from view the shanty.
There was more than one remarka-
BILE incident connected with the acct
dent. J. S. Goans and two compan'
ions, brick masons, were on the train
going to Radford, where they were to
60 to work the next morning on the
stone bridges of the company near
there. Goans was in the second car
next to the engine. He was on the
roof. and when the accident occurred
he was shaken from his seat and shot
through the air like a meteor. He
struck the tarred roof, went through,
knocked three planks from the side
and went rolling down the incline.
bruised, scratched and Jared. fol.
lowed by the crushing cars.
ut hardly took two seconds for the
thing to occur" said j. A. Turner. who
WlUuSsStQ tuC dCClSlClU llOih Aic 11OurS
hundred yards distance. 1T was
terrible and / never want to see any
thing like it again "
Word was sent to Radford and the
wrecking train was FASTENED to the
scene, but even before this the work
of rescue was commenced. Everyone
in the neighborhood came down, and
when they were reinforced by the
trainmen, it did not take them long
to release the imprisoned men. But
they were dead and lay there with
their bloody faces >upturned to the
new moon.
Yesterday morning the bodies were
taken to Radford, where they lay al
day long in the freight depot. A. j
Oakley g. Co, the undertakes en-
ctssd tli7m in plain but handsome
caskets, and in the afternoon the two
Italians were laid at rest in the City
Cemetery farfrom home and friends
Only their comrades followed then