The Dickinson press., 1903-11-07
STUDENTS. IN WRECK
BIG FOUR SPECIAL CARRYING
FOOTBALL PLAYERS in "A
COLLISION.

passenger Crashes Into a Coal Train
at indianapolis and Fifteen Persons
Are Killed and Fifty lnjured-Three
Coaches Are Completely Demolished
and the Bodies of the Victims Are
Horribly Mansled.
Indianapolis, Oct. 31.-Fifteen per-
sons were killed and over fifty others
were injured, some fatally, by COLI
sion between special passenger train
on the Big Four railroad and a freight
engine with CIT Of coal cars. The
accident happened in the edge of this
city. The passenger train of twelve
coaches was carrying 954 persons,
nearly all of whom were students of
Purdue university and their friends
from Lafayette to Indianapolis for the
annual football game between the Pur-
due team and the Indiana university
squad for the state championship.
In the first coach back Of the engine
were the Purdue football team, sub.
stitute players and managers. Three
players, the assistant coach, trainer
and seven substitute players of the
university team were killed and every
one of the fifty-three other persons in
the car was either fatally or seriously
injured.
Of the fifty-one persons injured in
the wreck thirty-nine are seriously
hurt. nearly all having bones broken.
Crash Comes Without Warning.
From the twelve coaches were com.
Ing the joyous cries of thousand root
ers for Purdue, clad in gala dress,
with colors streaming, while in the
front coach sat twenty great, muscu.
lar fellows, trained to the hour, on
whom the hopes of brilliant victory
on the gridiron were confidently
placed.
Around a curve at the Eighteenth
street cut the engineer of the special
found directly. in front of him the
freight engine and coal cars moving
slowly from switch leading to a
gravel pit. He reversed his engine and
jumped.
The crash hurled the passenger en-
gine and three front coaches against
the steel cars loaded with coal that
plowed their way through and buried
under a pile Of wreckage weighing
many tons fully sixty human beings.
The first car, in which were the
football players, was completely de-
molished, the roof being torn away
and landing across a car of coal, while
the body of the car was reduced to
kindling wood against the side of the
steel freight car. The second coach,
containing the band musicians, was
partly telescoped, while the third
coach was overturned and hurled down
fifteen-foot embankment
Survivors Rush to the Rescue.
Immediately after the shock the
surviving passengers, men and women,
began the frantic work of tearing
away the wreckage and pulling out
dead and dying classmates and frater-
nifty brothers. The young women per-
formed heroic work. Though the bod
les were in several instances horribly
mangled, one completely and one par.
TALLY beheaded, they took upon their
laps the heads of the dying and injured
and soothed their sufferings as best
they could until the surgeons arrived.
A general alarm was sounded and
every assistance the city could afford
was rushed to the wreck which was
three miles from the business center.
Surgeons dashed up in automobiles,
while fire wagons, ambulances, ex-
press wagons, undertakers' vehicles,
private conveyances and even delivery
wagons were sent to carry away the
dead and injured. While these were
being carried to the morgues and hos
pitals the work of tearing away the
wreckage and rescuing those pinned
beneath went on. Big, muscular stu
dents wept aloud as they stood over
the bodies of their dead comrades and
fellow workers, or gazed hopelessly
upon the sufferings Of their college
mates, Writhing In pain.