The Coconino weekly sun., 1893-09-28
MANY KILLED.
The Fatal Mistake of @ Wabash
 Brakeman.
It Causes Fearful Wreck and Great Loss Of Life mt Kingsbury, Ind.-Eieven Killed and Fully a Score
 Injured.

KISGsBUR',, Ind, Sept 23.-A pas senger trail crashed into freight train at this place early yesterday | morning and at least ten people were | killed and thirteen or more injured, some seriously.
 The passenger train was an extra, running as he second section of No. 55. It left Detroit last night at 10 o'clock heavily y loaded with passengers 1t was due at Kingsbury at 5:3O a. m. but owing to the heavy traffic, was fif- | teen minutes late. Freight No. 92, east | bound, received orders to sidetrack on it's arrival at Kingsbury and allow the two secticnh of the passenger train to pass. The first section passed in safety, | but through some misunderstanding about the approach of the other sec tion Freight Brakeman Herbert | Thompson, of Ashley, this state, | was ordered forward to throw the switch that the freight might pull out on the main track and pro- ceed. Before the freight had gotten under motion the second section of the DdSStuSCl VI III Ntlliit at the rate O. 45 miles an hour to make up lost time Before the switch could be closed the passenger train ran in on the side-trlclx and crashed into the freight train. The engines were jammed into each other up to the cylinders and the smoker and day coach were tel escaped, crushing the sleeping pas senger. Tie second day coach was thrown across the tracks on top of tae debris oi the forward coaches There were two sleepcrs. The head one crushed into the forward coach and for the length of three berths was torn to atoms, the passengers, six in num- bcr, being badly injured but mono killed outright
 HOW IT OCCURRED.
 KIN GsBURY, Ind, Sept. 23.-Eleven bloody objects, torn and mangled be- yond semblancc of human beings, eleven souls hurried without warning into eternity, scores of bleeding and bruised victims moaning in their agony. Such are the awful results of the horror occurring at this little village on the Detroit division of the Wabash rail way.
 The calamity is directly attributa ble to Brakeman Herbert ThompsOn's care lcssness. Since his disappearance all efforts to find him thus far have been futile. The wreck and the cause lead ing to it is thus told by Wabash off, cial and is the only correct version thus far published.
 Vestibuled train No. 55, from Detroit | to Chicago, was running in sections | and was due to pass this station at 4:40 a. m. Fast freight was lying on the siding here to let No. 55 pass. The first section of No. 55 was about thirty | five or forty minutes late and passed at | 5:l5, and, by whistle, called attention | to the flags they carried for the second section. The engineer of the freight replied that the flag was seen, but 1t seems that Brakeman Thompson did not notice either the signal or the flag, and went ahead to open the switch for | No. 92 to leave. He had hardly done ! this before the second section of 5 was seen bearing down upon him at speed of fifty miles an hour. Thompson seems to have been paralyzed.
 Swerving to the left the ponderous mass of steel, drawing its precious load, plunged heavily into the waiting freight train with q horrible crash. Thompson rushed up to his engineer, wringing his hands and crying hys- tericaliy. For Gods sake what have you done?" asked the engineer. "l don't know: I turned that switch" said the brakeman and then recover ing himself he dashed hurriedly away | into the semi-darkness and disappeared.
 The result of the crash was fearful The terrific impact of the two mighty machines drove tank and cab of the freight engine into carload of dressed beef, the engineer and fireman remaining in the cab, and by mira cle escaped with their lives, the fire man sustaining a fractured leg. En- zine 473 of the passenger train was torn to pieces. The smoker behind il was forced through the tank on the pilot of the engine The splinters killed Engineer Green and the escaping steam badly scalded his fireman, Bar Der. In the smoker was where most oi the fatalities occurred, and it being the smoker accounts for the majority of the killed having been men.
 The scene that ensued was awful.
 Nearly all the passengers were asleer and the suddenness of the crash SC
 dazed the unfortunates that for few
 minutes all was still, save the escaping
 steam, but soon the agonizing screams
 of the injured rent the air with horri
 ble portent. Few of those uninjuret
 had the presence of mind to make any
 effort for some minutes to rescue the
 victims, but with the arrival of mum
 Der of residents near by, the work O
 releasing the victims was soon under way Owing to the huge mass int which the wreck was piled, this was a prodigious undertaking, and it Wal
 some hours before the last of the living
 was removed, and the dead were finally
 extricated only after the arrival of a wreckin g crew with apparatus.
 The dead as fast as taken from tht
 wreck were laid out beside the track | lo; fr m ,,nIartn l.