The herald., 1896-03-09
Engineer Thomas Was Quick
and COOl-headed
ALL THE CARS BURNED UP
The Most Severe Injury Was &
Sprained Ankle
the Del Mar Accident Proves Expensive to
the Company, Though No Ono
Was Seriously Hurt
Asrociated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
SAN DIEGO, March s.-The relief train
sent to last nights railroad wreck reached
there at 2 80 this morning and loaded the
passengers and returned to the city, reach
ing here at 4; 80 a. IN. There were eighty
passengers in all, thirty of them San Die
gans. and of the whole number the most
serious injury was sprained ankle. The
only serious injuries received by any per-
sons were bruises on the head and lacei-
Grated arm sustained by Conductor A. f.
Kinney, and quite severe bruises by Bag
gagemaster King.
The train was ascending the long grade
mile and o half north of Del Mar at 8
o'clock, running about twenty-five miles an
hour. Suddenly. without warning, the
tender flew the track on account of
broken fiange, and the other cars, with the
exception of the Pullman. went off the
track. Engineer Thomas applied the
brakes and reversed the lever. stopping the
train in its own length. Tho drawhead
between the tender and baggage car was
broken and the engine and tender went on
about hundred feet The baggage car
left the track, turning on the side. Next
to it was the smoker. which straddled the
track, the trucks being completely demol-
ished and the cars resting upon its bot
tom tmbers. The day coach, behind the
smoker, was on the right side of the track,
half upturned and overhanging a twenty
foot embankment If the smoker mad not
lost its trucks the weight of the day coach
would no doubt have dragged the whole
train over the ernbankment. AS it was,
the chains held the train intact and the
passengers knocked out windows and
crawled out of the coach. The parIor
car was badly damaged and was off the
track. The Pullman. the last car, was I'M
iajured.
The passengers took the wreck coolIy,
the only shrek being that of a young
mother. whose baby was thrown from her
arms. The child was uninjured.
The baggage car took fire Immediately
and the expressman had to work lively to
save the Wells Fargo treasure box. One
trunk was saved. The mails, express
books and all papers we're lost The pas
sengers hustled into the sleeper and got
out blankets, camping on the spot until the
arrival of the relief train.
Nothing could be done to stop the fire,
as the cars were tightly held by the over
hanging day coach. One by one the cars
burned until all were totally destroyed.
The company places its loss at $4,000.
The parlor car was valued at $4,000 and
the Pullman at S16,0OOO. One of the
heaviest losers is the Stearns bicycle team.
They had fifteen machines. including
being valued at over $1,000.
If the engineer had not displayed great
GOODNESS in applying the brakes and stop
ping the train it would have gone down
tifty-foot embankment and the loss of life
would have been very large.
A STREET CAR ACCIDENT
Sr. LOUIS, Mo-, March S.--As the result
of disobedience of orders by j. A. Aitken,
mo:orman, terrible head-end collision oc-
cured this evening about s o'clock between
cars of the newly completed Kirkwood
electric railroad, which connects the town
of Kirkwood with this city. Both cars were
badly smashed, four men were probably
fatally injured, twenty-nine badly hurt and
between twenty and thirty others less
seriously injured.
The fatally injured are: ]. A. Aitken,
motorman; Sam Smith, motorman; J. L.
Jones, claim agent Kansas and Texas rail.
road; Richard Lonagan, insurance agent.
The Kirkwood electric railroad has just
been completed, and great crowds were
taking advantage of its being Sunday to
patronize the line. Every car was crowd
ed. The line is single track system with
switches at intervals to be used for the
passage of the cars. 1t was the disobedi-
epce of a rule providing that car going in
certain direction should keep a siding
until the next car in the other direction
had passed, that caused the accident.
An east-bound car, with j. s. Pearcely
as conductor and j. A. Aitken as motor
man, stopped at a siding about one mile
this side of Kirkwood. The west-bound
car not appearing, the car men decided to
try and make the town in flying trip.
They had almost reached the end of their
journey when the other car came around a
curve and both crashed together. The
cast-bound car was running at the rate of
at least thirty-five miles an hour. The
passengers were thrown in a pile by the
Nrnh ,tNv1
ends OF the cars were completely de-
molished, each seat torn from its fasten-
ings and all the windows smashed. A
number os passengers were thrown
through the windows, and those on
the front platforms were crushed
together ard hurled to the ground. The
westward cSr was driven back one hundred
yards dowq tho track, but strange to say
neither car left the track. Had they done
so there wtiild have been a number of
deaths, as III, embanl.ment is thirty feet
high at this point and the cars met on a
culvert over ravine.
}. A. Aitken, motorman of the east
bound car, and sam Smith, motorman of
the westbound car, were taken out of the
wreck with mary bones broken and in.
jured Internally. 1t is thought they will
die. Among the passengers the most bad
Iy injured were |. L. Jones and Richard
Lonagan. Neither can live, it is thought.
They were all residents of St. Louis.
Twenty.nine passengers were taken out,
some with limbs broken and bodies
bruised, but it is thought that no one will
die as the result of the injuries received
Between twenty and thirty others re-
ceived less serious injuries. Help was
sent from Kirkwood, Webster Grove and
81. Louis, and the injured were taken to
hospitals or to their homes in this city and
surrounding towns.
THP RnINDApy