The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-08
THE RUNAWAYS DITCHED
Brakeman Vedd dar Is Thrown
Nearly a Hundred Yards
From the Track.
TROUBLE IN A MULLEN MINE
Tulare Supervisors Win a Suit for
Higher Salaries - Clan Mac
kenzie Case Reopened.

SAN BERNARDINO, CAL, May l.
Brakeman Frank Veddar, employed by
the Southern Pacific Railroad and resi-
dent of Santa Ana this afternoon had a
peculiarly thrilling experience at Redlands
which, if he survives his injuries, will form
for the remainder of his life the basis OF
his most vivid recollections.
An engine was shifting two cars loaded
with ice on the track OF the Union Ice
Company at Grafton to the main line The
brakeman was on the forward car. He
says that, as the cars were pushed upon
the main track, they bumped together, and
the brake chain of the forward car was
broken He hastened to the other and APP
piled the brakes, but it would not hold the
two cars, which, with the continually in
creasing momentum of their own weight
and sixty tons of ice, slid upon the down
grade of 400 feet in three miles and flashed
away toward Redlands.
The brakeman kept his head and his
place on the cars, and made desperate
efforts TO draw the brake tight enough TO
reduce the speed. But they kept on. faster
and faster, in cloud of dust that hid the
cars from view and gave them the appear
ance of a cyclone on its travels.
The employees at the ice factory tele-
phoned TO the Southern Pacific Office at
Redlands that the two runaway cars were
coming. In a moment the switch was
placed to throw them off the track, and
none too soon. a second later they came
in sight, running at speed anywhere from
ninety to 200 miles an hour. Fortunately
no one happened to be in their path as they
few across Orange street, a hundred yards
beyond which was the open switch.
The rear car jumped it and kept along on
the main track. The forward car took the
switch, and thus they separated, one draw
ing to the right and the other to the left.
OF course the coupling broke, and the.
shock sent the rear car flying into the air
With a jerk that whirled it over and over
and flung it 200 feet along the track.
AS it struck the first time it plowed a
hole four feet deep in the dirt at the side
of the track, bounded and rebounded in
the air and at last stopped, tangled mass
OF splintered timber and twisted iron
work lying bottom up. The heavy cakes
of ice slid with the ruins and were scat
tered broadcast down the track for 400
feet.
There were several eyewitnesses of this
left the track Brakeman Veddar was
whirled into the air at least twenty-five
feet and thrown fifty feet beyond the
point where the car stopped, OF at least
$50 feet beyond the point where the car
left the track The CALL correspondent
paced off these distances, and they are
reasonably accurate.
Mr. Veddar fell upon his face. His nose
was broken and also his left arm and leg.
His Jaw was fractured in two places and
there was an ugly scalp wound.
He showed wonderful nerve and was
conscious all the time. He told the story
of the commencement of the accident and
described his efforts to stop the cars in the
brief ride from Grafton. He was taken to
Los Angeles on the 245 train, accompanied
by DR.. Sanborn. His physicians think
that he viii survive his injuries unless there
are unforeseen complications.
When the cars separated the forward
one kept on along the switch for $50 feet
until almost past the freighthouse. There
a rail spread and threw the car from the
track 1t rolled over like the other and
ended in another shapeless mass. The
forward end was demolished and the cakes
of ice shot out and along the track for an
other 100 yards.
The track was soon cleared and travel by
the road was not materially impeded
Passenger trains went around the wreck
by another switch.