The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-04
-be T11an Killer 81 the South Park

been disturbed and was still set for the
mainline. While the men were work
ing elsewhere. the cars, being on
slight grade, and with no brakes, be-
gan 10 move down hill. and one OF the
Drakemen. noticing it. jumped on the
first car to set a brake. As stated, all
the brakestaffs had been removed to
accommodate the rails. but the brake
man was not aware of that fact, and
hoping TO avoid a derailment IN the
yard he jumped of and ran ahead to
the open switch. which he threw Tor
the mainline. Then he remounted the
cars to set the brakes which were not
there. and crazed with the sudden re-
alizatiOn of his blunder and its pos
Sible consequences, he jumped from
the runaway cars and ran wildly into
the sagebrusil. where a sherid's posse
found him four days later.
A Frightful Crash.
In the first mile the heavily-laden
cars had attained the velocity Of an
express train on the heavy down grade,
but they had yet four miles to run be-
fore they met the up-cOming third sec
ton, pilOted by the hOOdoO 80" A
comparison of time made subsequent
to the disaster showed that not more
than four minutes had elapsed between
I
mainline and their meeting the up
coming train The combined weight Of
the eleven cars and their lading was
100000 pounds, and at the given rate
Of speed let some mathematician cal
culate the force of the impact, allow
ing rate Of six miles per hour for the
up-coming train. The latter could see
only so far as the headlight of the
/ So penetrated the darkness. and the
three engine crews were all uncOn-
/ sciOus and equally unwarned of ap-
/ preaching danger. George Flood was
! engineer of the So and Jimmy Clark,
a mere coy, was his fireman George
4 Dram and Billy Purdie were on the
III" and Bert Chapman and AZel
/ Reach on the "a" Jimmy Clark was
down putting in a fire when the crash
came. and according to the verdict OF
the coroner's jury, was killed in four
different places" Every flue in the
''5O's'' boiler was driven back through
the boiler head, through the Goa
pile and actually through th'
two sheets forming the bacl
of the tank, and rails weighing
half a ton apiece accompanied the hues
side by side. Flood was pinned int
the cab, and was scalded externally anS
internally with steam 10 such an exten
that ne was considered as good a
! dead, though the decision was a ndS-.
one. The crew of the second enSin
was knocked out of the cab, and es
capped practically unhurt, though Oran
maintains to this day that he was sen
flying through the air over his owl
tank. over Chapman's engine. and tina
ne finally landed on Chapman's tanh
On Chapman's tank he was found, sur
enough. but that he climbed into
while dazed by the horrible force Q
the collision is the general belief. Chap
man himself was slightly injured D
being thrown out of his cab, but Keacl
his fireman, had his right leg caugh
and smashed 10 a pulp in the gangWa1
Poor Azeli He deserved to live, 10
his courage was superb. Whipping on
his knife, he cut off the shattered mem
Der, thus freeing himself He the
crawled into the sagebrush, and, wit
his handkerchief and a sage limb whlc
he cut, formed 4 tourniquet and etoppe
5 the flow of blood. Then he compose
: himself in the cold of the early daW
and awaited the arrival Of the rell
train, when his wounded limb receive
V such excellent surgical tre1SSGent th'
o he died in the hospital Of blood poiso,
:. ing four days later. Flood, whose col
f dition appeared so much more serlou
r recovered, and is still in service on u
= same piece of track, as are also oraI
Il Chapman and Purdie.
L At the wreck, daylight revealed
It sight magnificently terrible The raj