Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-01-01
THIRTY LIVES ARE LOST.
Terrible Wreck by Head-End COL
lision on the Grand Trunk
in Canada.
THIRTY KILLED AND MANY INJURED.
Wreck Occurred at Wanstead,
Forty Miles From London, DUR
ing a Hard Snow storm, Which
Added to the SuYerings of the n
tured Passengers.

London, Ont, Dec. 2S.-A frightful
collision occurred, Friday night, be-
tween a passenger and a freight train
on the Grand Trunk railway at Wan
stead, a station on the Sarnia branch
of that road, and according to the lat
est reports from the accident, 30 per-
sons were killed and. 40 were injured.
The passenger train was the Pacific
express, No. 5, ~west-bound. 1t was
running at a high rate of speed and
the freight, which was proceeding
east under slow Roadway, was to have
taken the switch at Wanstead to al
low the passenger train to pass. APP
parently neither engineer saw the
danger in time to avert the accident,
for the two trains came together
heal the west switch with a frightful
crash, overturning into the ditch. The
baggage and express ears telescoped
into the smoker with appalling re-
suits. The wreck was complete and
it is thought that hardly a single pas
senger in the smoker escaped injury.
The other cars of the passenger train
remained on the track. Word was
quickly sent to this city and doctors
were soon on the scene.
The Inflated Train.
The Inflated express consisted Of
two baggage cars, a smoker, two
first-class coaches and two Pullmans,
the Chelmsford and the Fcnwick. The
smoker, which was telescoped by the
coach behind it, had the sides
knocked out of it, the roof falling
and imprisoning the passengers. 1t
was in this car that most of the aw-
full havoc and loss of life occurred.
The wreck, shortly after the COLI
sion, caught fire and but for the he
roic efforts of a brigade of passen-
gers, organized and led by an old
man, who was himself a passenger on
the Inflated train, the disaster might
have been more disastrous to those
pinned down in the wreck. By heroic
efforts this brigade put out the fire
by throwing snow on the flames with
their hats and hands. They turn !
their efforts to getting out the
wounded who had their sufferings in
creased by a binding snow storm and
the thermometer near zero. A Miss
Cuthbertson, of Port Huron, Mich,
was imprisoned under the wreck two
hours but was not seriously injured.
Due to Operators
The accident is said to have been
due to the failure of an operator to
give orders to the express train to
meet the freight at the station.
One of the passengers describes the
accident as follows:
"We are running at about 40 miles
an hour when, without the slightest
warning, the two trains met with ter
rife force. On examination it was
found that the two engines were in
the ditch. The baggage car was
thrown on top of the first-class coach.
instantly killing a great many and
pinning about SO other passengers in
the debris. The creams, means and
prayers of the injured were heart
rending. One poor woman begged that
her child be saved, as she was dying.
The little one was carefully taken
from the wreck, and will probably re
cover. The mother was afterward re-
leased, but only to die in a few min
utes.
about 80 people were killed and AZ
badly injured, some of whom will die.
'"The trainmen as well as every pas
senger did all they could to relieve the
..Hror,-r, of tho victims" -.r