The Indianapolis journal., 1903-09-28
Five Of the Dead and Five of the In
jured Were United States Rail-
way Mail Clerks.
TRAIN WAS RUNNING FAST
LEAPED INTO SPACE WHEN LOCOMO-
TIVE STRUCK THE CURVE.
All Express Matter Destroyed Except
Six Crates of Canarics, Which
Escaped Unhurt.

running at high rate of speed a south
bound mail train on the Southern Railway
jumped from a trestle seventy-five feet
high half mile north of Danville, Va, this
afternoon and was almost demolished OF
the crew of sixteen men, including mail
clerks, nine were killed and seven injured.
The dead:
J. A. broadly, engineer, Saltsville, Va.
A. G. CIAPP, fireman, Greensboro. N. c.
T. j. BLAIR, conductor, Danville, n. C.
n. c.
ton, d. c.
w. T, CHAMBERS, mail clerk, Mid
land, Va.
d. T. FLORY, mail clerk, Nokesville, Va.
P. N. ARDANwRIGHT. mail clerk,
Mount Clinton, Va
S. ]. MOODY, fagman, Raleigh, N. c.
BOY. twelve years old. son Of ]. L.
Thompson.
The injured: Mail Clerks Louis w.
Spiers, Manassas. Va; Frank E. Brooks.
Charlottesville, Va; Percival Indenmauer.
Washington; Charles F.. Reams. Culpepper.
Va; Jennings ]. Dunlap, Washington, D.
c.; NJ. c. Maupin, Charlottesville, Va, and
]. Harrison Thompson, ST. Luke, Va.
All the injured men are seriously hurt
and have been taken to the hospital at Dam
Vile. The recovery of Mail Clerk Spiers Is
not expected and other clerks are thought
10 be mortally injured.
The trestle where the accident occurred
is 500 feet long and is on sharp curve.
Engineer Brodie was new man on that
division of the Southern and thus came
to the curve at high speed. The locomo-
tive had gone only about fifty feet on the
trestle when 1T sprang from the track car
rying with it four mail cars and an express
car. The trestle, a wooden structure, also
gave way for n space of fifty feet.
At the foot of the trestle is a shallow
stream with rocky bottom. Striking this
the locomotive and the cars were reduced
to a mass of twisted iron and steel and
pieces of splintered wood. AS the cars
went down they scraped the sides Of the
riverside cotton mill.
All the dead men were mutilated. The
skin and hair of the engineer and fireman
were torn off by the boiler.
Several thousand people were soon at the
scene of the wreck. No one on any of the
cars had made an effort to jump and the
bodies of all those killed were found in the
wreckage of the different cars to which they
belonged.
Women who drove to the wreck from
Danville tainted at the sight of the crushed
bodies. All the express packages in the ex-
press car was destroyed. except six crates
full of canary birds. None of the birds
hurt though the crates were in the
thickest of the debris. The express mes
senser, w. F. Pinkney, escaped uninjured.
All unofficial opinions say the cause of the
wreck was the high speed of the train on
the sharp curve. The train was running
about an hour behind time.
The mail bags i'm all the mail cars were
torn open and the letters and packages
were scattered, but it is believed none is
lost. Fire which appeared in the wreckage
shortly after the accident occurred was
quickly extinguished by the Danville fire
department.
On account of the wreck all traffic on the
central and northern divisions of the South
ern will be delayed as it will take several
DAYS TO repair the damage TO the track.
The Southern is arranging to run its south
bound trains over the Norfolk e Western
from Lynchburg via Burkville to Danville;
new trains being made up at that place.
The train was the regular mail train,
which carried mail from Eastern points to
the West and Southwest. running over the
Southern Railway from Washington to At
lanta. No passengers were carried on the
train between the two points, the train
| being made up of express and three
| or four mail cars. The time card of the
| train calls for fast schedule and stops
are made only for change of locomotives.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27.-Oficial reports
to the Southern Railway general offices
say that the wrecked train was on time
at the last station at which it was reported
| and that IL was going at the rate of thirty
| TO thirty-five miles an hour when It APP
| preached the trestIe and ran off the track
| at the north end or the trestle, carrying
| the trestle down when the locomotive ran
| off the tracks 10 the ground below. Broadly,
| the engineer, was about fifty-five years
| old and had been with the Southern Rail-
way about twenty years. his service a large
| part of the time being on the division on
/ which the accident occurred. While reports
| leave it in doubt just how the accident &C.
| CURED and il will take further inquiry to
/ make this certain, it is believed here the
| accident was due TO a fiange on the front
wheel projecting over the rail and striking
| the ties.