The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-08-16
Seven Persons Killed, Including
Frank Person, of Franklin, Ind.,
and others Injured.
DISCOVERED HIS ERROR JUST THIR-
TY SECONDS TOO LATE.
Fog So Thick the Engineers Could Not
See Over One Hundred Feet Ahead
The Track

dense fog, "A changing of train orders and
a moments drowsiness of a telegraph op-
orator combined this morning to cause a
collision and wreck of two of the heaviest
n finest trains in the service of the
Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad and the
loss of seven lives and the injury of about
a dozen more persons. Five of the dead
and most of the injured were employees of
the company.
Dead
C. NJ. LETT, Grand Rapids, conductor.
GILBERT GROETVOID. Grand Rapids.
W. H. FISH, Grand Rapids. engineer.
E. D. WOODHOUSE. Grand Rapids. fire.
man..
l.. G. BOYLE, Grand Rapids, fireman.
FRANK PEARSON, Franklin, Ind, pas
RALPH LEvAN. Grand Rapids, son of
baggageman.
Fatally Injured
MARK BLOSSOM, Grand Rapids, news
agent.
injured
H. A. DEVINS, Grand Rapids, passenger.
w. NJ. GRAVES, Grand Rapids. colored
D. c. POWERS. Grand Rapids. baggage
FRANK PoRoFF. Traverse City. train
man.
W. M. BARNES. Grand Rapids. dining
HARVEY TAYLOR, Grand Rapids. col
ored waiter.
w. G. HARTSHORN. passenger.
The injured and lead were all brought
to this city on a relief train.
AT the point of the collision the track is
straight for over three miles and the en-
gineers would have had ample time to
check their trains had the air been clear.
though they were both running at a speed
Of sixty miles an our. AS 1t was, the fog
was so dense as to hide from sight every
object, no matter how large, outside a
radius of a hundred feet from any given
point.
Train orders had been changed the night
before, but after the north-bound express,
a resort flyer containing through sleeping
coaches from Cincinnati, Louisville and ST.
Louis, had left this city. at 4:O5 a. m. the
train dispatcher's office decided to cancel
the arrangement. One engineer received
his orders all right; the other did not. The
operator at Mill Creek, a small station
five miles north of the city, had been asked
If the express had passed him, and on re-
plying in the negative was told to flag 1t
and give new instructions. But it had
passed him unnoticed a few minutes be-
fore, while he slept. He is an experienced
operator and had always been one of the
most trusted employees of the road.
The other train was a regular passenger
due at Grand Rapids at 6 a. m. The two
had been passing at Sand Lake, eighteen
miles north of this city. The changed or
ders would have made them pass at Wooh-
son, four or five miles further north, but
the engineer or the south-bound train had
received his instructions to pass at the
usual place and at the moment the Mill
Creek operator was standing in front of the
station waiting to signal the express, he
was far this side of any station by which
he could be reached.
The express flying toward him could nave
been stopped at Pierson, but the Mill Creek
operator discovered his awful mistake half
a minute too late. He rushed to his in
strument and notified the Pierson operator
just as the flyer went whizzing by his Of
crash and notified Grand Rapids at once.
q number of physicians was on the way to
the rescue, and a few minutes afterward
another followed. Heroic work was done
for the injured.
Both engines, the heaviest in the COM
pany's service, were destroyed, the boiler
of one exploding. A much greater loss Of
life was prevented through the fact that
the south-bound train had three freight
cars between the engine and passenger
coaches. thus relieving the latter from the
greatest force of the impact. Passengers
in the rear coaches received only a severe
shaking up. OF the seventeen cars in the
two trains, only six were left upright. The
wreckers worked all day, but when the
last special left for Grand Rapids in the
evening their work had apparently only
begun. 1t will take them all tomorrow to
finish. No trains were run to-day, as the
track was lifted from its bed for a space
CT two hundred yards and thrown aside,
rails, ties and all. A temporary track is
being built. The company's loss cannot be
accurately calculated, but will amount to
nearly $4,000.
1t has not been decided whether any ac-
ton should be taken against Operator
Wells. He has been a trusted employe and
has worked for the Pere Marquette and
Michigan Central roads. Though he was
stationed in Kent county, the accident oc-
Cured in Montcalm county and any action
will have to come from the authorities
there. Prosecutor Rodgers, of Kent county,
has decided that he has no authority to in
terfere.