The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-28

" ~
"A RAILWAY "RECh'
Ao"ie hesuit Oh ~ 'o"" "e-
tween F"ssenSer trains %" 'ne
""phsh wear sehec"' 'e"'
Many Others Were Injured and Hur-
ried to the Hospitals mt
Peru and Elsewhere.
GREwSoME SIGHT LAST NIGHT
DEAD AND DYING STREWN ALONG
THE RAILWAY TRACK.
Disaster Believed TO Have Been
Caused by Disobedfence OF Orders
some of the Injured.

DETROIT, Mich, Nov. 27.-From 100 to
$50 persons were killed or injured tonight
In a passenger train wreck on the Wabash
Railroad. Two heavily loaded passenger
trains collided head on at full speed one
mile east Of Seneca. The west-bOund
train OF seven cars. two of them filled with
immigrants, was smashed and burned.
There was awful loss of life or fearful in
5uries to a majority of it's passengers. The
east-bound train. the Continental limited.
o. Tered in scarcely less degree.
The track in the vicinity of the wreck
is strewn with dead and dying. Many
physicians from Detroit have gone to the
scene. The Continental limited was in
charge of Engineer Strong and Conductor
Martin The other train. double header.
was IN charge OF Engineer Work. Engineer
Parks and Conductor Charles Troll. The
limited. it is believed. disobeyed orders in
not waiting at Seneca for the other train,
thereby causing the wreck.
The track at the point where the collision
occurred was straight and at first the Of
ncials could not understand how the acct
dent could have happened. The westbound
train, which ordinarily leaves Detroit at
l:2o. The two trains meet at Montpelier,
o., according to schedule, but the limited
had orders TO meet the westbound train
at Seneca. The blame is. therefore. placed
on the conductor or engineer Of the limited
Had this train been held at Seneca the ac-
cident would not have occurred. The train
was due at Seneca at 6:43, according to the
change in schedule. but apparently orders
to await were disobeyed, and the probabili-
ties are that the true story OF why will
never be told. the train crews un-
doubtedly met instant death.
Advices from the wreck at midnight state
the country for miles around is lighted up
by the burning cars and that the flames
could not be quenched because OF lack of
proper apparatus. Mangled bodies were
picked up along the track by the farmers
before a special relief train sent from
Adrian reached the scene. In some in
stances the bodies were mangled beyond all
recognition. The bodies which the rescuers
managed TO pull from the burning ruins of
the immigrant cars were so badly burned
that their identity will probably never be
ascertained-
coaches carrying immigrants. one saying
there were but two and another that there
were five or six immigrant coaches
engine, baggage car, combination coach
and sleeper. When the crash came the
combination coach was telescoped and the
loss OF life on this train is estimated at
twenty-five All but the last two coaches
on the immigrant train were demolished
and the loss OF life is estimated as one
hundred on this train One of the engines
OF the immigrant train exploded and the
engine OF the limited turned over into a
ditch. The firemen and one engineer on
the immigrant train were killed. but the
fireman and engineer on the other train
Jumped and escaped
AS soon as the news OF the disaster
reacher Division Superintendent Burns. Of
Detroit. the wires were kept hot ordering
special trains from Adrian, Peru and Mont
pelier TO the scene. a special train from
Detroit. carrying thlrty-tWO physicians ana
surgeons. started for Seneca and was given
the right OF way. When il reached the
scene. the work was at once commenced
succoring the wounded.
special from Adrian bearing all the
doctors and physicians in the city had
been at work for hour, but the flames
retarded the work OF rescue. The wounded
had been placed on stretchers in the
coaches sent from Adrian.
AT 1875 the first train loaded with
wounded left the scene of the wreck for
Adrian. The dead were left behind. 10 be
carried on a later train
The wrecling train ordered from Mont
pelier. thirty miles away. arrived shortly
after o'clock. but the heavy vestibuled
cars % the wrecked limited lay between
IL and the burning immigrant cars so that
but little aid could be rendered 70 the res
cuers by those who came frosn Montpelier
When the special train bearing the
wounded reached Adrian the injured were
carried In ambulances. drays and delivery