San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-05-10
CRUSHED TO DEATH.
L.. f. sIEN AND ID. F.. NEFF KILLED
BY "A SWITCH ENGINE
They Needed Not the Warning and
Their Lives Paid the Penalty
An Unavoidable Accident
The Engineers Statement.

been the scene of many dreadful acci
dents and horrible, fiendish crimes
Last evening the tragedy in which
two lives were lost was equally, il
not more horrible than its predeces
sors, and will remain engraven on the
minds of those who witnessed 1t IN I'll
their deaths.
Messrs. Louis E. Sien and Dave. H.
Neff, proprietors of the San Antonio
COrnice and Ornamental Works, 24S
West Commerce street, were return
ing TO the city, in n one horse express
wagon, from Prospect Hill, where
they had bsen doing some work on u
new house. being built there. On
reaching the L. & G.. N. track.
on West Commerce street, they
were compelled to stop their
horse and wait until q number of
freight cars had cleared the crossing
These cars were pulled by switch en-
CINE "a, and switch engine "a was fol-
lowing right behind them going
down to the end of the switch to get
out and come III behind passenger
train No 2, just then pulling into the
yards. AS the caboose attached to
the freight cars passed the two men
whipped up their horse and started
to cross the track. They could not
see the other switch engine coming
as the switch shanty hid it from their
view. Flagmen Bolden, and Yard
master HarOldson ran out and tried
to stop the horse, but either the men
did not sea them or were too excited
to know what they were doing,
of
The men passed the fiagman and
were on the track in moment. AS
they struck the track they seemed 10
see the engine for the first time and
then to lose all control of themselves.
Persons who saw the accident tell
different tales. Some say that first
they refined up the horse, and then,
when both were standing up in the
wagon, the one driving struck the
horse rap, causing it to give a sud-
den Jump forward and throw them
out backwards into the middle of the
track. Others say that as the wagon
was crossing the track they both
jumped out the back at the same
time and striking one another in the
air. in their excitement grabbed hold
and held on to one another and thus fell
on the track and were found dead un-
der the tender few minutes after
the occurrence.
The engineer reversed his engine
and stopped within five feet of where
he struck the men, showing that he
was going at q very moderate rate of
speed.
The two men fell almost directly
under the foot. board OF the engine,
which was stopped before the first
wheel of the tender had passed over
them, but not until the lie of both
had been crushed out.
A crowd soon gathered at the
crossing and people tried to get
the bodies out, which was found to
be impossible, until jack screws
had been procured, the tenden raised
and the bodies extracted. They were
killed almost instantly. STEMS skull
was crushed and Neffs, neck was
broken. Both had several bones in
their bodies broken.
When the bodies were at last ex-
tracted they were carried into the
switch shanty and Justice Heron
was sent for. He soon
arrived viewed the bodies and
Both men have families here Sien
| is orother.in-law of Frank ]. Bethel,
| and lives on Presa street back of the
Mission Garden. He is iH good Cir
cumstances and has q very good pay
ing bushes, like the one here, on
Market street, Galveston, Texas. H.
returned to this city from Galveston
just year ago yesterday.
NeH, leaves wife and two
daughters. He has q share in the
cOrnice factory on Commerce street,
and he has relatives In OHIO and Aus
| tin.
Both men will be buried today.
The following is the statement
of Engineer jacob r Balm
who was running the engine at
the time of the sad occurance
at is very cad affair, out could
not be averted. The switch shsnty
is so situated that we could not see
anything I'm the street where the
wagon was. 1 was backing the en-
giue down off of track mum Der one so
as TO get in back of the passenger
when she came in. When the engine
had gotten directly in front of the
switch shanty door, / heard the fire
man, Charlie Bateman, who was on
that side, say, Stop! For Gods
sake! There's horse!' reversed
the engine and did all In my power to
stop, but it ran about 20 feet back In
spite of me. Batemau was the
first man that signaled me
in any manner, that 1 could
see. was on the right sid,
{ and OF course could not see what wal
going on the other. The first thing
saw of the rig was the horse dash ou
back of the tank and then the empty
wagon. The tank struck the wager
slightly, just grazing it but not hurt