Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-27
THIRTY WERE KILLED
Terrible Wreck on Grand
Trunk Railway
NEAR LONDON, ONTARIO
PACIFIC EXPRESS CRASHED INTO
EAsT-BoUND FREIGHT.
Thirty-Five Passengers More OF Less
Seriously Injured - Many
Die of Exposure.
NEAR LONDON, ONTARIO

LONDON, Ont. December 2I.-One OF the
most frightful railway disasters In the MS
tory of Canada occurred at l0:lo ctoch
last night at Wanstead, station on the
Sarnia branch of the Grand Trunk lorty
miles from this city, when express NO D.
known as the Pacific express, flying west
ward at the rate of 80 miles an hour, ana
crowded to its capacity with passengers
returning to their homes from holiday WIS.,
its, crashed into an east-bound freight.
The latest estimate of the fatalities Is
thirty killed and thirty-five or more injured.
The darkness Of night and the raging
of a blizzard added horrors to the wreck.
Fortunately the fire horror was averted
A fire broke out in the wreckage OF the
day coach. but it was smothered with
snow and coats, which were thrown on IL
before 1t gained any headway.
Partial List of the Dead.
Following is a partial list OF the dead
Edward Boyse, Prescott, ontario' MISS
Nellie Geddes, Sarnia; Mr.. Burreil' Lon
don; Nicholas Jeffries, London; Mrs. ). b.
Rarnes Woodstock, Ontario; - Gillies,
Sarnia Tunnel, engineer of the express
Alexander Cameron, Petrolia; Mr. smith,
trainman Sarnia Tunnel; II. L. Lawrence
Watford: Mr. and Mrs. Alex. Stewart, Lon.
don: Edward Debeau; H. p. Lawrence OK
Watford, ontario.
The Injured.
Following is list Of the injured:
Alexander NJ. Stewart, Wingham, ont;
J. ]. Cuthbertson, and wife, Port ffufoh'
Mich; Flossie Cuthbertson, Port Huron
Mich: James p Ramblin, Toronto, Ont;
Mrs Samuel Cummings, Port Huron
Mich; Hattie Northey, Peterboro, ont.
lanes r Northey Peterboro', Ont; Nellie
Frank r. Rakpr. LOn0On,
Ont; w. N. Morse, wife and three children,
Sarnia; Thomas Coote. Chicago; george
Stacey, Wanstead, Ont; Edward Deevans,
Prescott. Ont; DR.. Harvey Chicago; MRS
J. NJ Stewart and child, Oshkosh, Wis;
Russell Quinn, Chicago; James Banes.
Woodstock. Ont; Beatrice Geddes, Sarnia,
Ont; Lottie Lynch, Port Huron, Mich;
oming, Ont; Mrs. w. Cott and Margaret
Cott, London. Ont: j. F. Shaw!es, Strath-
roy. Ont; w. H. Cole and wife, Flint,
Mich; B. X. Mcdonald, Strathroy, Ont.
Mrs T. N. Byrnes. Sarnia, Ont; Annie SIM
clair Komoka, Ont: Mrs. Pugsley, London,
Ont; Carl Stewart, Oshkosh, Wis; Robert
Jackson. Petrolia; Hobart Stewart. Osh-
kosh, Wis; James Baines, Woodstock, Ont
OF the trainmen the fireman of the ex-
press was killed, the engineer, Mckenzie
escaping. The engineer and fireman of the
freight train are missing.
Express Was Behind Time.
The Pacific express is fast train. Last
night is was delayed two hours by the
heavy travel. and at Wanstead it was
speeding to make up time. The freight
was working slowly east under orders to
take the switch at Wanstead and allow the
express to pass. In the binding snow
storm neither engineer saw the other train
approaching. apparently, and the freight
had just commenced to pull in on the sid
ing when the passenger train came up.
The shock was awful. The trains came
o1vy L1,I
baggage and express cars of the passenger
train telescoped into the day coach. This
day coach was reduced to splinters and
fragments back to the last three windows.
AS it was crowded the results were ter
rible. Fire that broke out was quickly
smothered. but the fire was scarcely a
worse danger than the cold. however.
For three hours or more wounded and
MANNED passengers were pinned underneath
wreckage, crying piteously for help while
they suffered from exposure to the ele-
ments.
Death From Exposure.
Exposure undoubtedly hastened the death
of some of the seriously injured and caused
the death of some of those who might have
been saved if it had been only question
of extricating them from the wreckage.
The Pullman cars stayed on the track and
were comparatively uninjured, although the
prisoners in them were severely shaken up.
city of the wreck, and a relief train with q
dozen London doctors was dispatched to
the scene The work of removing the dead
and injured was at once begun. Hail u
dozen bodies were recovered within a short
time and a number of the wounded removed
from the wreckage. Trains were made up
to send the wounded to London hospitals.
Efforts to identify the wounded and dead
were attended with difficulty. The dead
bodies taken from the wreck were fright
fully manged, some of them almost be-
yond recognition.
The scenes attending the removal OF the
dead from the wreckage were pitiful IN
the extreme Several families were on the
train, and the air was filed with the anx-
fous cries of those separated from their
loved ones, not knowing whether they were
Killed or saved.
One Sister Excapes, Another Killed.
Miss Nellie Geddes of Sarnia was among
the killed She was returning with her Sis
ter, Beatrice -Geddes, from visit to rela-
tiyes in this city. Beatrice was slightly
injured and was brought back to London
on one of the early relief trains. Not
finding her sister here, sne became conVlnc-
ed that she had been saved and gone on
to Sarnia. and this morning Beatrice left
for Sarnia confident that she would meet
her sister Nellie there.
Edward Boyse Of Prescott was taken
from the wreck alive but he was so fright
fully injured that he died two hours after
being placed in the hospital in this city.
J. A Lamonte of Wyoming was the night
operator at Watford, the telegraph sta
tion nearest to the siding at Wanstead.
fxed 1t is said by some that came
through a confusion in orders, for which
Iamonte was responsible. Lamonte was
In some way injured In the wreck.
Police Patrol and Trolley Collide.