The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-05-28
Especial TO The Herald.)

Pocatello, Ida, May 27.-The most
disastrous railroad accident in the his
tory Of the Oregon Short Line railroad.
occurred at American Falls, % miles
west of here, at ABS this morning. No
"a, an east bound freight, crashed into
the west bound Portland express, while
the latter was standing at the station.
Nine men were killed outright and
eight seriously injured. Both engines
We're demolished, the depot building
almost totally wrecked and some IS
freight cars. with their contents,
smashed to pieces.
THE DEAD.
The dead are:
c. W. SHIELDS, So years of age,
residence unknown.
D. L. THOMPSON. of Dayton. Wash.
JOHN r. COOPER. of Wellsville,
J. STIFFAN. of Dillon. Mont.
FIVE OTHER MEN whose identity
has not been esta plished.
THE INJURED.
The injured are:
c. w. BRENNAN. of Pearl. Ida. leg
broken and bad scalp wound
JOHN BERGEN. of Bingham, Utah,
leg broken.
T. D. SPRINGER. of Dayton, Wash,
leg and ribs broken.
WILLIAM Connolly, of Great
harrington, Mass. crushed about lower
portion of stomach. cannot live.
JOHN PETERS. residence unknown,
GEORGE MOORE. engineer of
freight. compound fracture of leg and
side bruised.
r. J. COSGROVE. fireman of freight,
leg broken and badly bruised about the
body
E. c. HICKMAN. engineer of pas
senger. back injured.
CONNOLLY died on board a train
while being conveyed TO the hospital at
Salt Lake.
TRAIN CREW NOT TO BLAME.
1t is not thought any blame can be
attached to either train crew. The ex-
press was waiting at the depot for the
freight to pass, when the latter came
laundering around the curve at terrific
speed. She signalled to the express TO
back up, but the time was very short
and before Engineer Hickman. of the
passenger. had an opportunity 20 more
than get his train under way the crash
came Cars were piled Up onto the
depot. utterly dernolishing il. and
Agent St Clair and his family. who
were asleep in the building. had
miraculous escape from instant death.
John Cooper. Frank Busk and Night
Operator Goodwin were talking on the
depot platform a moment previous
Seeing the runaway freight coming
Cooper ran into the depot and was
killed. Burke and Goodwin took refuge /
behind the building and escaped.
Brannan. VINO was on the platform /
waiting for the train, was buried in the
wreck.
THE AIR AT FAULT
The direct cause of the accident was
due 10 the air on the freight being I
cut off and the engineer losing control I
OF the train. It is believed this was !
done by some tramps who were steal |
ing a ride.
Conductor Cook, with his brakeman. (
assisted by Fireman COsSrove. made /
every effort TO control the train, but
without avail The wreck presented /
q scene Of Understandable destruction.
CHAOS REIGNS.
The cut in front of the depot was
piled nigh with broken cars, the
wrecked station and demolished en-
gines. Ties were torn up and tele-
graph poles and wires were mixed in
one vast heap 4 relief train left this
city for the scene at once and soon re-
turned conveying the wounded to the
hospital at Salt Lake. Out of 100 pas
sengers aboard the train. Brennan was
the only one injured: he had stepped
from the train for an instant when he
was caught The Portland train was
delayed but three hours. All of those