Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1897-09-15
COLLIDE ON A CURVE.
Two Trains Crash Into Each Other
on the Side of a Colorado
Mountain.

town. Denver Il Rio Grande passenger
train No. /, Westbound. collided with
Colorado Midland stock train, going east,
wrecking both engines and several cars IN
both trains
Shortly after the collision fire broke out
in the ruins The mail, baggage and
express ears. smoker. day coacn and
tourist sleeper were burned.
A number of passengers who were not
killed outright. but who were pinned IN
the wreckage and could not be eXtricated,
persisted in the flames. There were about
200 passengers.
1t is estimated that twenty-five persons
were killed and as many. more bruised,
scalded and burned. of whom more than
six are likely to die of their injuries.
Death List is Incomplete.
AS vet it has not been possible to OBJ
tain a full list of the dead and injured.
Following is a partial list:
The dead:
MRS. ALEX HARTMAN and two chill
dren, Hersher, III.
ENGINEER OSTRANDER.
ROBERT HOLLAND, fireman.
CHARLES LEEPER, Clarion, Pa.
JAMES KEENAN,, postal clerk.
JAMES ERRICK, Chicago.
The injured:
Alex Hartman, HerSher, ILL.,, both legs
broken; will die.
Robert Gordon engineer, ruptured and ter
ribly bruised; may die.
Fireman Hines. terribly burned; cannot re-
cover
Miss Pearl Cornell, Oregon; leg broken.
John II. Standard. Black Foot, Idaho; cut
and burned, both legs broken.
j. H Sheets. Iowa. right hand cut.
r. W. Sholts, Clarion, Pa.
James c. Foley, express messenger, Den
yer, bruised
William MESSENGER, express messenger,
Denver, bruised.
". l.. Hawthorne. conductor, bruised;
P. H. NcAvery. Victor, Col, burned about
the head, back bruised.
Frank P Mannix, Victor, Col, slightly
r. II. Birckley. back hurt.
Mary Israel, and son Nathan, both horrl-
o. V Tyson, bruises
Brakeman Knapp, leg crushed.
j. c. Yeager, Victor, Col, badly hurt.
Four more bodies have been brought in
which are burned beyond any possibility
of Identification. Very slow progress is
being made in getting out the bodies.
j. II. Standard and Alex. Hartman
have been removed to the hospital at
Salida. Both will probably die.
Hartman is a minister from Herschen,
H., who was travelling with his wife and
two children to the coast
From the day coach few escaped. The
sides of the car pinned down the passen-
gers, many Of whom were roasted in plain
sight Of those who wanted to help them
cars were ablaZe in two minutes. Little
baggage and no mail were saved. Gen
eral Superintendent Sample and Surgeon
Dean are on the field working hard.
Bad Place for an Accident.
The accident occurred at the worst pcs
Sible point. Two minutes more running
time and they would have avoided the
wreck, as each engineer could have seen
the approach of the other train. The
trains collided on a curve or bend round
q mountain, and there was no opportunity
to avoid the wreck or even slacken their
speed. The surviving trainmen say the
trains were not running fast, but the
facts seem to be that both the passenger
and freight were going at full speed
about twenty miles an hour for the pas
Senger and the freight ten or twelve.
The RE Grande Junction road. cn
which the wreck occurred, is joint track
operated by the Denver & Rio Grande
and Colorado Midland companies. 1t IS
a single, standard gauge track. seventy
seven miles long, running from New Cas-
tie to Grand Junction connecting The Two
roads with the Rio Grande Western. 1t
follows the route of the West Grand
river and nearly ali the way are high
bluffs on one side of the track and the
stream on the other. it being from fifteen
to twenty feet below the surface of tie
track
The Rio Grande passenger train was
due at New Castle at :05 p. m. and
should have reached the point one and
one half miles beyond New Castle. where
the accident occurred. by lilo The
train must, therefore. have been at least
one hour late, as the accident occurred
at 1915 a. IN.
Conductor Read Figures Incorrectly,
One report as to the cause of the acct
:
bank of the Colorado Midland stock
train made a mistake of ten minutes in
figuring on the time when the Rio
Grande passenger train passed New Cas-
tie and that therefore he was chiefly re-
sponsible for the disaster. Engineer
Ostrander, of the stock train, could either
confirm or deny this report if he were
alive. but it is believed he is dead under
the debris
W. l.. Hawthorne, conductor of the
passenger train, was in the smoking car
at the time of the collision and was
thrown about and severely bruised. He
says that the gas cylinder under one of
the wrecked cars exploded and every
thing appeared to be in flames within a
short time. He says be does not think
more than two or three passengers in the
smoker were burned to death, but will
not say there were not more than this
number.
worst. Out of twenty-nine people in that
coach only six are now known to have
escaped. All was confusion and some
may have escaped
AS in all similar accidents, the engine
men were first TO lose their lives En-
gineer Ostrander went down with his
hands on the lever.
Robert Holland, fireman on the pas
senger, was SO badly hurt that he died
at ) o'clock. Engineer Gordon of the
passenger train may live, although he is
badly injured, and at first was thought
to he fatally hurt He suffered great
pain from a rupture in addition to his
other injuries. He was thrown over a
barbwire fence by the force Of the col
lision.
Hines, the Midland fireman. was so
badly hurt that the doctors who exam
ined him at o'clock said that he could
not recover. He was shockingly burned,
but bore his pain bravely. james Kee-
nan, the postal clerk, will not live un-
til noon the doctors say. He is terri |
bly, scalGed.
Il Thrilling Escape.
Two express and baggage messengers