The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-21
HEADLONG DASH OF
FLYER INTO FREIGHT
Eight People are Killed and
Ten Injured.
THE SCENE is A SIDING
Seventeen Year Old Boy Gives The Clearance
Signal, the Passenger Engineer Failing
to See Another Flag Sent Back
by Freight.
(By the Associated Pross.)

jamestown, N. Y, April 2O.-Eight ner-
sons are dead and ten injured, three of
them seriously, as the result of colli-
sion between a passenger train and a
freight on the Erie road at an early
hour today near Red House, Ny.
OF the dead, only one man, Robert
Hotchkiss, of Meadville, a brakeman,
has been identified. Seven bodies. an
parently those Of three men, three wo-
men, and child were burned beyond
recognition in the fierce fire which fol-
lowed the wreck The women are said
to have boarded the train at Youngs-
town, and to have come from Pittsburg.
R. S. McCready, a mail weigher, OF
Meadville, Pa, and Frank Barite, of
jamestown, travelling salesman, are
missing, and it is likel two Of the un-
Identified bodies are those of the two
men. The injured are:
H. Hulsifer, New York city. badly
bruised; c. w. Mesick 22S Adams street
Chicago, back badly injured; Anna st.
Sells, Brooklyn, shocked and very sick.
II. M. Clemnger, mail clerk, Gerry, N. Y.
ribe fractured and body bruised John D.
Mrs. Foot, so years old. St. Paul, Mimi.
bruised and shocked; S. A. Cooke. negro
porter, Summerville, N. j., leg fractured
e. G. Gabler, express messenger. Marion.
Ohio, leg cut off probably fatally in
1ured; B. 7. Bell fireman and back
bruised; Mrs. Foot. e. C. Gabler and
Fireman Bell ye in the hospital at
Salamanca, the others were able to pro
ceed tc their destination.
The wrecked passenger train was
known as No. 4 running from Chicago to
New York, and was made up OF Engine
No. 545 in charge of Engineer Samuel
Cook and Fireman Fred Bell, Of Mead
vile, one combination, two day coaches,
three sleepers and two private cars. 1T
was derailed by striking a freight train,
which was taking a siding at Red House.
The wreck at once took fire and the CON-
bination car, two day coaches and two
sleepers, together with several Of the
wrecked freight cars were consumed
There is some dispute as to the cause
of the wreck. The passenger was run
ming east and the freight, which was
westbound, had orders to go into the
siding at Red House and wait for the
passenger train to go by. The siding is
about mile and half long There is
tower of the block system near the
west end
The freight was drawn by two engines.
Some trouble was experienced in enter
ing the siding and the foremost engine
was sent in along the siding with n
ftagman to hold the express. 1t is al
legged that the operator in the tower.
Lawrence Vale, a boy OF II years old,
saw the light engine of the freight, which
was bringing up the flag and supposing
the freight was behind it, Vale then
displayed a white signal to the passenger
train Indicating to the engineer that he
had a clear track
The engineer on the passenger train
failed to see the fagman sent out from
the forward engine Of the freight train
and saw only the clearance signal from
the tower. The train ran toward the
east end of the siding at high speed and
collided with the second engine of the
freight just as it was about the clear
the main line. The passenger engine
and some of the coaches crashed into a
small wooden structure used as a feed
store and school house. The first half
dozen cars of the freight were wrecked.
They were box cars loaded with coal
The coal filtered in amongst the wreck
age creating an intense heat All but
three of the cars of the express followed
the engine and the whole mass of wreck
age was soon in flames. The tracks were
strewn for rods with burning wood and
coal and heaps of twisted iron work.
Number is one of the fast trains on
the Erie The two private cars at
tached to it today We're occupied by w J.
Murphy. his wife and two officials of the
Queen and resent Railroad, and J. u.
Frazier general superintendent of lover
Leaf All escaped unnjured.