El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-06-23
A FATAL SMASH-UP.
BAD WRECK ON THE JOINT TRACK
LA ST EVENING.
A L. & p. Passenger and all Extra G.
HI. Freight Crash Together Near
Madden Station, DemoIishiug
Eleven Cars and killing
Engineer PiersOn.

A sad and fatal head-end collision
occurred on Inc Joint Track d. o:2J last
evening, Ittie over one mile east OF
Madden station which IL 62 miles eds.
OF JniS city, 10 whicu Engineer samuel
PiersUn vi The u. Ii. was Instantly kil.-
ed, aid Two engines, eleven IreIgGt
cars and Two cars on d PASSENGER Lraiu
smashed.
As hear as can be asceriaiued the
iacJs are as follows: the west bounu
Sunset fast freight number "A due IN
this city at 0:4O p. m, local Time, Was
coming west In Two sections; and as it
also nappeued, there was an exJra
II ely bit also vest bouOd. La Sumeway
the extra Was SaauwIcned betw cen lho
Two Sections Of "a, making PRACTICAL,
turce sections Oh the one Train. The
east bound IcXaS ana Pac tic PASSENGER
leaving Ills city at 2:IU %. IN. was
noLltleu about the two sectIuns of ~,
out IL seems tua6 no special orders were
issued about extras, Wulcn Carry suit
abe signals and are supposed To hum
their own sIdlngS, ana keep out OIL
every passenger t. AIMS way. The
eX,ra IN tnls case carried her own bro
per signal, a white tiag. The first sec
lion " as passed at Rio Granur, the extra
was slue tracked at Maiden, anu the
IeXas " Pac tic train men, So IL seems.
EXTRA but sized 1t up that this Was
the second secJion of the Sunset west
bound freight, ana went by. The en-
glnemen on The extra might lave
taken The precautlOn 20 signal the pas
senger 10 sIop, but they ere WIDEN ly
no. supposed 10 KNOW, and no do.b
ala not Know that The remaining train
Was 50 ciuse Cehlnd, and gave no sign
Meanwhile the L. q +. went on to
disaster.
AL mile east of Madden there is a
curve To The left, ana Of course Enei-
neer William Oliver, OF engine ITO OF
the L. q +. passenger, could not see
what was approaching from The curve
On tue Ctner side Of the Gao; and more
over, tae lay OF the land was such tnaI
much OF any outlook was out OF tue
qu.s.l Ion. The hrsJ thing he knew was
UuaL his fireman, Joe Copeland, calico
out that an engine or train of some
KIND was approaching. Mr.. OIlyer
Immediately .eaned Over onto the fire
man SIDE OF the cab, and, taking Ill
Inc situation, ssralg htway threw on S
emergency brakes, reversed under
steam, and then, seeing il Was suicidal
tn remain longer wnere he could do
noth1ug more, Jumped. He says. his
train was going very SLOW and in a mo
ment more would nave stopped. He
IlghLed on lot OF rocks, CUTTING his
chin and bruleing his wrist and neck
Fireman Copeland stepped OFT into a
d ten and was not hurt at all.
linn ediaLely the traius came to-
gether, the bIg 20 G. II. freight en-
CINE cnawIng up tue..Smaller L. & Z.
engine in snort Oruer. Letting the
forward part clean off the ground, and
senC1ng the tank crashing back INTO
he baggage aud express car. Mr.
Oliver Lnlnks his engine is tota!
wreck. The bags age car was sma she'd,
ana the forward part of the smoker
was stove in. The q. II. engine wa
not DANA ged to any great extent, ana
remained on the track, ut the tanx
with the coal aud every thing on it was
shot into the Cab wnere Engineer
Pierson was caught under The tank
ana cual and Instantly hal the life
crushed out of him. Hardly a bone
remalLed who'll IN his BODY. and h IS
lnwards were torn out. Mr.. Oliver
anu other engineers think + erson's
Conduct In this crisis remarkable. His
fireman, Pete Bantz, GU seeing the T.
u Z. engine showing up in front, cried
out Jump. Sam, jump. for vour
life. flerson merely turned
10 remark some hing to this effect.
you tehu 10 your business and I'll
tehd TO mine. Inc mao appeared to
be completely oazed, as thon1h the
wis were CLEAN gone out OF him. 1t