The San Francisco call., 1896-10-10
Engineer Haggerty Killed and
Fireman BowSher Badly
Injured.
BURIED UNDER THE WRECKAGE
Twisted Iron and Splintered Wood
Piled Forty Feet High Upon
the Track.

PALO ALTO, CAL, Oct. "a north
bound freight train on the coast division OF
the Southern Pacific collided shortly after
2o'clock this morning with three empty
boxcars, which had escaped from the Palo
Alto switch and were running down grade
on the main line. Engineer Henry Hag-
gerty was instantly killed. Fireman Jo-
seph T. Bowsher suffered fractures of sew
eral bones and internal injuries of serious
nature. Trainman c. W. Benge was badly
hurt. Engine and train were piled in a
heap forty feet high upon the track and
reduced to tangled mass OF twisted metal
and splintered wood.
The grade falls rapidly from Palo Alto
as far down as Mountain View and the run
away cars had gained five or six mile
momentum when the smashup occurred,
half way between Palo Alto and Mayfeld.
How the empty cars got onto the main
track is not definitely known. 1t is said
that they were not "braked," as they
should have been, when sidetracked.
Others say that miscreants must have
started the cars, but there seems to be
little proof to back this assertion.
The train coming north was composed
of eight heavily laden box and fat cars,
and was travelling at the rate of thirty or
forty miles an hour as it does not stop or
dinarily at Palo Alto or Mayfield. The
cars were filled with sacked wheat, flour,
wool and asphaltum, and there was a
quantity of butter, eggs and fowls in one
of the cars. The train and the moving
cars met directly over trap" in the
track, and to this was doubtless due part
of the phenomenal telescoping that fol-
lowed. The empty freight cars were
tossed twenty feet from the track, with
the exception of the first car, which slid
under the fore part of the engine and was
crushed to fragments. The engine turned
almost completely over; the cow-cateher
being iammed into the ground and the
tender being thrown INTO the air, resting
on the rear end of the locomotive fifteen
feet above the ground. The loaded cars in
the rear were piled up one upon another
to height of thirty or forty feet on and
about the engine.
The force of the shock is evidenced by
the rails, which were bent like ibers and
snapped in places like needles, while solid
wheels and axles were broken into bits.
The heavy wooden backing of the bump
ers on the cars is sheared into long
stringy splinters each grain separated
from the others. Over the whole pile was
g promiscuous mix-up OF wheat -four and
potatoes. How any living thing could
have escaped is mystery; nevertheless
most of the chickens did escape death in
the wreck, but only to fall into the hands
of those standing about, who carted them
off, with little regard for their ownership.
Another peculiar fact was that a number
of crates of eggs endured the shock and
were uninjured so far as external appear
ance goes.
Haggerty was probably killed instantly.
His mangled body was recovered under
the engine about an hour after the COLI
sion occurred. 1t was at first believed
that Fireman Bowsher was also killed, but
the rescuers heard his groans and cries
while at work and released him from his
dangerous predicament He was at once
placed in the hands of physician, who
did everything in his power to relieve the
sufferings of the injured man. Whether
any tramps were on the brakebeams is un-
known the removal of the wreckage alone
will show that.