The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-27
DEATH IN A TRESTLE
APPALLING DISASTER To A WA
BASH TRAIN.
END WAS SUDDEN FOR MANY,
THIRTEEN UNKNOWN ITALIAN ENII-
GRANTS KILLED.

The Seriously Injured Number Fifty.
The Engine Plunged Through the
TrestIe and Six of the Eleven Cars
Were Piled Up in n Heap in the
Dnrkness-A Terrible Scene of
Death and Destruction Ensued.
Wreckage Had to he Lifted by
Derricks 10 Get at Dead and
Wounded.
Peru, Ind, June 26-Thrteen persons
were killed and about fifty were seriously
injured in a wreck of train No. 3, the
west-bound Wabash limited, nine miles
west of this city. at 1890 a. M, to-day.
The dead are all italian emigrants On
route to Colorado, as follows:
Mrs. Matte Cruise, wife of Joe Cruise
of New York.
Miss Fannie Muhloic, sister of John
Muhlolc.
Luigi Beneni New York.
Five Italian men, names unknown.
Two Italian women, names unknown.
Three Italian babies.
Two sections of train No. g. one coming
from Detroit and the other from Toledo,
were consolidated in this city into
train of eleven cars. making up the flyer
for its journey to st. Louis. 1t consisted
of a combination baggage and express.
combination baggage and smoker. day
coach, emigrant coach, three chair cars,
three sleepers and the private car OF Gen
eral Superintendent Cotter of the Iron
Mountain Railway.
Sped Towards Death.
Having left this city one hour late the
train was speeding westward at a high
rate. when. at point nine miles west
the engine plunged through a trestle
which had been undermined by the re-
cent heavy rains. The embankment on
both sides of the little stream dropped
at a sharp degree. a distance of forty
feet. Owing to the momentum of the
train the engine appeared to leap across
the abyss, plunged into the soft earth
on the opposite side. and fell back to the
bottom. Engineer Butler and Fireman
Adams were thrown from the cab, but not
seriously hurt. The express car and the
first chair car were telescoped. The emil
grant car, followed by two chair cars.
went down on the left side of the track,
and the first sleeper pitched forward upon
the mass of debris. Its windows and
trucks were broken. but none of the oc-
cupants was injured. The remaining cars
also left their trucks, but were not badly
damaged. 1t was in the enigrant and
day coaches that most of the deaths and
injuries occurred.
There was absolutely no means by
which the engine crew could see the i'm
pending danger. In fact the engine ran
out upon the trestle before the struct uTe
gave way. The night was intensely dark
For few minutes after the fatal plunge
and dreadful roar of crashing timbers, a
deathlike stiffness prevailed which was
only broken by the cries of the injured.
The Scene Lit with Torches.
Trainmen caught up their lanterns and
rushed to the peighborng farmhouses for
assistance. The farmers. with their
wives and children bearing torches, has
tened to the scene and all efforts were
bent to giving first aid to the injured.
Telephone messages were dispatched to
this city, and every physician was hur-
riedly taken to a special train which car
ried them to the scene. The injured
were placed aboard the cars and brought
to the general hospital in this city, where
everything possible was done to anchor
ate their condition.
For a time after the rescuers reached
the scene of the wreck, little could be
done in the way of removing the dead.
Hundreds of tons of twisted iron and
broken timbers rested upon the car where
the unfortunate emigrants were crushed.
BY means of wrecking derrlcks the
mass was gradually opened, and by day
light nearly all of the dead had been re-
moved 10 this citV.