Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-28
HEAD ON COLLISION
Pore Marquette Road Has It's
 First Disastrous Wreck.
TWENTY-TWO DEAD, MANY INJURED
Cause Assigned IS That High Wind Exttnguished Red Danger Signal Eight and Westbound Train
 Ram Past Crossing Station.


 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich, Dec. 2s.-- A disastrous head-on collision between Pere Marquette railroad passenger trains near East Paris caused the death of twenty two persons and seri- ous injury to twenty nine others. Sev- eral of the injured will probably die.
 The dead are: MT. and Mrs. l.. J. Baldwin, Mulliken, Mich; Louis Bald vin, their son, Mulliken, Mich; Les ter Williams. Lansing, Mich; Mrs. Daisy Giles, Lowell, Mich; Burt Myers, Grandville, Mich; Walter Jor- dan, Grand Rapids, Nich.I Joseph Hull, colored, Windsor, Ont: Austin I. Wager. baggageman, Detroit, Mich; Charles A. Stoddard, engineer of No. 6, Detroit, Mich; Charles A. Devine, Grand Rapids, Mich; William Helm rich. baggageman, Detroit, Mich; F. M. Gillet Burr Oak or Portland, Mich; Allen Fl. Wells, Big Rapids, Mich; Frank Burns, fireman of No. s, Detroit, Mich: Peter w Wierengo, Grand Rap ids, Mich; George Palmer, American Express agent on No 6, Detroit, Mich: William Smith, saranac Mich, and four unidentified men
 The injured were mostly Grand Rap aads and Detroit men,
 4 was the most disastrous wreck in &he history of the Pere Marquette sys- tenn, and, instead of being caused by mans carelessness or mistake, is charg- nd to the high wind, which extingTlish- ed the red signal light in the order board at McCords Station, where the westbound train was expected to stop and receive new orders. Two min utes before the train rushed by Me Cords the light was burning, says the operator there, but in that brief in ferval the blizzard that was raging ex- tinguished it, and train No. 5 flashed by the station to crash into eastbound train No near East Paris. The trains, which were two of the finest on the system, were reduced to a promiscuous pile of broken and twisted timber and metal, with dead and injured pinned down and crushed by the fragments of the heavy cars.
 Five cars and two large locomotives were damned into a space ordinarily occupied by three coaches, and the wreckage was strewn across the rail- road right of way from fence to fence.
 When train No. 5, bound west, whiz- Ked by McCords instead of stopping the Frightened operator notified the dis patcher, then found that his red light had been extinguished. He reported <~x. k1J+ action to take The collision was in- evitable.
 The dispatcher's office called for med 1cal aid and gave orders to hold the train over the Saginaw branch at the depot and get the wrecking outfit under steam They then waited for the word they knew must come.
 There was no chance of the fast rum ming trains seeing each other through the driving blizzard in time to even slow down, and in a few minutes word came from the conductor of No. that they had crashed together and that there was an awful loss of life.
 The westbound engine, No. 307, drove through No. 6's engine like wedge, separating the gear from the 001leE ana eLanQlug tue ldLlei OH Suu ike a broken, twisted shell The run ming gear was crumpled up like so much twine Great cast steel side rods bent into many shapes, and even the steel tires of the big driving wheels split and sprung from the wheels, land 1ng in some cases ten feet from the en- zine. The boiler of engine No. 397 turned over several times, and the very kaEce nS tha twisting impact seems to