Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1897-06-03
Bad TRAIN WRECK IN IDAHO.
A Wild Freight Crashes Into
a Passenger.
NO ONE is TO BE BLAMED

Nine Were Killed and Eight Seriously
/ Injured Majority of Them Were Try
ing to Beat Their Way on Freight.
| Boise, May 3l.-The most disastrous
wreck in the history of the Short Line
railroad occurred at American Falls at
4:30 this morning. A runaway freight
train crashed into the west-bound pas
senger train. Nine men were killed
outright and eight others seriously in
jured. Both engines were demolished,
the station buildings shattered to pieces
and Is or 20 cars smashed. The dead
are:
G. w. Shields, residence unknown;
d. l.. Thompson, of Dayton, Wash. !;
John Z. Cooper, oi Welsville, Utah;
J. Steffen, of Dillon, Mont; five un-
known men.
Excepting Cooper, these men were
beating their way on the freight. Most
OF them were sheepshearers. Cooper
was just about to take the passenger
train going west.
The passenger train had pulled into
American Falls, and was standing at
its accustomed place waiting for the
freight to pass it on the sidetrack.
American Falls station is situated in a
depression, and there is quite an up
grade in both directions.
The first warning of any danger was
WHEN Engineer Hickman heard the
freight whistle to back up. He at once
reversed his engine, but the rails were
wet and the grade heavy, and it was
an instant or two before the train re-
sponded, and in that moment the
freight train thundered around the
curve and across the bridge, going at
the rate of 80 miles an hour. The
passenger train had hardly begun to
move before the freight dashed into it.
Both engines were demolished and
the freight cars piled up one on the
other, jamming in the side and demol
ishing one whole end of the station
building.
Just as the engines met, Engineer
Hickman jumped and came to the
ground in the midst of flying timbers
and debris.
John Cooper, Frank Burke and
Night Telegraph Operator Charles
Goodwin had been talking on the plat
form an instant before they saw the
wild freight coming. Cooper ran into
the depot and was killed instantly.
Burke and Goodwin ran out behind the
building and escaped. Brennan, who
was on the platform at the same time.
was buried in the wreck.
The station building was demolished
to the partition between the depot and
the private rooms where Agent st.
Clair and his wife and three children
were asleep.
The dead and mangled bodies of two
Of the killed were hurled against this
partition. Beams were forced through
it and over the bed occupied by the
children, but miraculously not one of
them was injured, although the room
was twisted and shattered almost to
fragments.
The freight train had run away on
the hill west Of American Falls. It
is thought that some of the sheen.
shearers or hobos had cut off the air.
The air brakes would not work, and ON
the hill the train was found unmanage.
able. Conductor Cook and Brakemen
Davis and Westron were on top setting
the brakes, and Fireman Cosgrove had
climbed back to help set the brakes.
but they proved of no avail. The train
shot down the grade and across the
bridge into the passenger train.
Only the cool nerve of Enp;neer
Hickman in remaining at his post and
reversing his engine saved the lives Of
dozens of his passengers, as well as Of
the family of the station agent sleeping
in the building.
The wreck presented scene of indie.
scribable destruction. The cut in front
OF the station and the spot where the
station stood were piled high with
broken cars, demolished buildings and
the shattered engines. Ties were torn
up and telegraph poles and wires were
down in the ruins.
The dead were recovered and the in.
'ured cared for as rapidly as possible,
and at II o'clock special left the
Falls with the wounded for the hos.
pital &. Salt Lake.