The San Francisco call., 1896-08-25
Running Forty Miles an Hour
When the Disaster Oc-
Cured.
SCENES OF WILD CONFUSION.
Clouds of Steam and Smoke Add Il
the Terror of the Pinioned
Unfor tunates.

PITTSBURG, Pa, Aug. "a. - The
through express train from Chicago on
the Pittsburg and Western Railroad,
which was due in this city at 1895 P. NJ.
was wrecked at Valencia, small station
twenty miles west of here, at 11:30 o'clock
to-day, and more than q score of passen-
gers were injured, four of whom may die.
Just before the passenger train reached
that place there was collision of freight
trains, which threw number of freight
cars onto the main track, and the express
train, coming along at the rate of forty
miles an hour, plunged into the wrecked
freightcars. Nearly every car of the ex-
press was wrecked, and the escape of the
passengers from instant death is re-
markable.
The injured: Mrs. w. B. Marsh. Tall
mage, Ohio, skull fractured, will probably
| die; John Curry, Pleasant Hill, Pa,
lower jaw fractured. throat cut, will die;
Mrs. ]. w. Morse, Lodi, Ohio, lower jaw,
cheekbone and collar-bone fractured, re-
covery doubtful; Miss Mary Bennett. Al
legheny, Pa. serious confusion of left tenn
pie. nose cut aud bruised Mary Bennett,
head cut and face bruised; Walter Smith,
Akron, Ohio, scalp wound; Mrs. e. A.
Cramer, Apollo, Pa, serious scalp
wounds; Belle Cramer, injured internally /;
Grant Culbert, Allegheny, Pa. right fore
arm fractured, face and scalp wounds; /;
Jennie Cramer, slight scalp wounds;
D. B. Schantz, Harmony, Pa, scalp wound
and spinal cord injured, not serious; G.
D. Huston, Newcastle, Pa. scalp wounds;
E. j. Smith, fireman, Beaver Falls, Pa,
scalp wound and ankle sprained; J. B.
Weakening, Newcastle, Pa. leg bruised
and scalp wound; Miss Jennie Smith, Ve-
roma, Pa, face and head badly cut; J.
G. Miller, engineer, Hazelwood, Pa,
leg badly squeezed; L. L. Gray,
express messenger, Allegheny, Pa,
nose broken and hand and wrist IN
jured; DR.. J. T. Tierney. Sharpsburg, Pa.
serious scalp wound; ]. Edward Grill, bag
gage-master, side ard face injured; Mrs.
G. f. Hyle. Evans City, Pa, head badly
cut and bruised; J.W. McMillin, engineer,
Bennett Pa, both feet crus ned; Charles
Smith, fireman, Bennett. Pa, ankle
sprained and head badly cut.
The injured were brought to the AIle-
gheny General Hospital by a special
train.
The Chicago express train does not stop
at Valencia and was running at about the
rate of forty miles an hour when the
engineer first discovered the obstruction
on the tracks. He reversed and applied
the brakes, but though the speed of the
express was diminished somewhat it
struck the freightcars on the main track
with frightful force, and the freightcars
and engine rolled in mass OF torn wood
and iron over an embankment into the
ditch below.
The engineer and fireman of the express,
when they saw that a collision was inev-
table, jumped and escaped with severe
injuries. The tender, mail, express and
passenger coaches piled up over each other
and rolled down the embankment on the
wrecked engine and freighicars. Clouds of
steam and smoke from the disabled en-
CINE enveIoped the scene and added to the
distress of the injured pinioned in the
wreck, who feared the debris would take
fire and burn them alive.
Meanwhile, those of the express crew
and passengers who were not injured, the
crew of the freight train and people of
Valencia who were near at hand when the
accident occurred, rushed to the aid OF the
injured, and a special train with surgeons
was at once dispatched from Allegheny to
the scene of the wreck. The freightcars,
which were struck by the express, were
heavily loaded with long iron piping.
These heavy iron tubes were hurled with
great force through the sides of the day
coaches and most of the fatal injuries to
rassanoers wera nroduced bv them