The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-06-23
RUNAWAY OF EMPTY CARS At
SPOKANE.
FOUR PERSONS ARE KILLED
Long Train Standing on Siding Rush.
es Down Incline, Scattering
Death and Destruction.

Spokane, Wash, June 22.T.One Of
the strangest railroad wrecks in the
history of the northwest took place
a little before daylight this morning,
a short distance from the center OF
the city. A runaway train of sixty or
more loaded cars without an engine
four miles down grade through
town, d~emolishing a dwelling house,
w~recking a laundry, killing at least
four people, injuring nine others, and
piling up a tangled mass OF debris
estimated to be fifty feet high. The
dead are:
WILLIAM THOMAS, workingman.
ELMER SLEE, age 9 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN.
UNIDENTIFIED BODY, still partly
hidden in the wreck.
Just how many cars made the long
dash down hill is unknown, but the
estimates run from go to 80, nearly
the entire train being heavily loaded
with soft coal. These car were
coupled together and left standing
on the old Spokane Falls & Northern
line, now used as a storage track.
From Hillyard, a long grade slopes
down to Division street, in Spokane,
four miles away. ABOUT $3.50 o'clock
this morning, the heavy train began
slide slowly down the grade. Gain.
ing momentum rapidly it raj soon
rushing through the city with a ire
mendous force. Every switch was
clear and so far as known nothing
impeded it's progress until it struck
an empty box a rear the old S. F.
& N. depot. In this a William
Thomas and another man, supposed to
have been a tramp, were sleeping.
Showing this a ahead OF it as a
humber the runaway train swept on to
Division street. Here the track end
ed, but the train plunged forward,
crossing the street, running over a
rock pile and swinging along the
south side of Harrison venue. Near
ly 800 feet from the end of the track
stood a six-room house, occupied by
the families of John Slice and Mrs.
Myers. Striking this house squarely
in the center, the flying train smashed
it to kindling wood. Still rushing for
ward the cars tore over the rough
ground for 200 feet further, striking
the frame building occupied by the
Crystal Steam laundry. This was not
demolished but was moved bodily, be-
ing showed three or four feet west.
Here the runaway had spent it's force.
Nine people were sleeping in the
Slice house when the train struck it.
How they escaped is a mystery, as
it is said nearly every timber in the
building was broken. James Slice, the
father, was pulled out OF the ruins
practically uninjured. The dead body
of his son, James Slice, Jr., was found
near by. Another son, Clarence, and
the baby, Viola, were found to be I'm.
injured and were taken to the hospi-
tai. OF the three children of Mrs.
Myers. who were sleeping in the
house, only one, Irene, was injured.
Not far from the house we're found
the bones of Thomas and his COM
panion. They had been carried nearly
1000 feet from the place where their
box car was first struck. Another
body was still in the ruins at latest
reports.
The momentum of the train may
be judged from the discovery of wheels
and axles more than 100 feet from its
path. Along the route taken by the
cars the wreckage is scattered for
nearly a quarter of a mile. At Di-
vision street the cars are piled up
in a heap of wreckage estimated to
be SO feet high. Nearly 30 cars are
piled up near this point and others
at points along the route.