The San Francisco call., 1896-09-14
Engine and Cars Fall to the
Bed of a River Forty
Feet Below.
NEARLY A SCORE AMONG THE
BADLY INJURED.
Men, Women and Children Pinned
Under the WreCkage - But
Three Escape Unhurt.

River Rallroad, near this city, TINS after
noon, an accommodation train was pre-
cipitated into the bed OF the creek below.
Four persons were killed outright and a
nus. Der of others seriously wounded, some
of whom will die. The dead are:
ALEXANDER CAMERON, brakeman.
Miss ANNIE HOLLAND of Riverside.
Miss KIRKHAM.
AN UNKNOWN CHILD.
The injured are:
David Wood, Glendale. badly injured
and cannot survive.
Mrs. David Wood, wife of above, both
legs broken and internally injured.
The two little children OF David Wood,
badly crushed and bruised
George Burke, engineer, severely scalded
and bruised.
Charles Burke, fireman, badly burned.
Harvey Sammons, conductor, fatally
iniu.ed.
Mrs. Kate Minor, arm and leg broken.
Annie Vintera, face cut and leg broken
Mary Vintera, internally injured
Daniel Mahoney, dangerously bruised.
Two children of Daniel Mahoney, seri-
ously injuiied.
Rosie Budetti. Italian peddler, badly
bruised and shaken up.
Herman Sanders, cut on leg and in
ternalIy injured.
A. Sanders, sIiz htly bruised.
Mrs. Gregory OF Eureka, seriously in
jured inGerna ally, may die
Two children of Mrs. Gregory, seriously
bruised.
Sven Johnston, badly bruised, may not
recover.
Grant Warren, cut and bruised about
head.
An unknown Italian woman, uncon-
scious and will die.
Details OF the accident are difficult to OBJ
tain, there being no telegraphic communi-
cation with the scene nearer than Eureka.
AS far as known the accident was caused
by the collapse of bridge spanning Mad
River, about five miles from Eureka. The
accommodation train which leaves Arcata
at 4:30 o'clock this afternoon consisted of
two coaches, one boxcar and engine. and
carried about twenty passengers. Shortly
after o'clock a telephone message was
received stating that the train had been
derailed at Mad River bridge and was
total wreck on the river bed. A relief
train with doctors, nurses and medical
supplies was Immediately dispatched from
Arcata 20 the scene.
tbroa aarr apd an Diva
lying beneath the bridge, mass of splin.
tiers. The injured had managed to drag
themselves from the debris ana were nurs-
ing their cuts by the water side.
Buried beneath the wreckage were found
the bodies of Miss Holland, Miss Kirk
ham and Mr. Cameron. The unknown
child was alive when found, but died
few minutes later.
The injured were carried up a steep
bank with great difficulty, and II was
nearly 10 o'clock when the relief train
started on the return trip to -Arcata, bear
ing the dead and wounded.
The train was met at Arcata by the en-
tire population of the town, and the scene
was pitiful when the dead and injured
were claimed by friends and relatives.
The bridge that collapsed was several
hundred feet in length and had hitherto
been considered safe. 1t contained one
pier, about midway. and the approaches
were high above the gravel bed of the
stream. The train had slowed down to
about five miles an hour, as is customary.
and was moving at this speed when the
crash came. Had not the rules in regard
to speed been strictly observed every one
on board must surely have perished, as
an additional twenty five feet would have
landed the entire train in the waters of
the river.
Mr.. Louis Everding of the Riverside Mill
Company, one of the passengers on the
wrecked train, said in an interview to-
night:
"There were about twenty-five passen-
gers on board and of this number only
three escaped uninjured. ] was seated in
the smoking-car chatting with a number
of gentlemen when the crash came. None
OF US had the remotest idea of what had
occurred. We felt the car sink beneath
US. and after downward plunge, such as
a person experiences on a rapidly falling
elevator, I felt a sharp jar and an instant
later found myself crawling out through
the side door of the car. The train had
dropped distance OF fully forty feet to the
hard gravel bottom of the river.
'AII the cars were smashed to splinters
and no dtfi0nlfu oxnarianea6 hv the