Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1903-07-27
REAR-END COLLISION.
Eleven Persons Injured = Exagger'
ated Rumors in Alexandria.

ate0 RumOrS In AlcAaHurla
In a rear-end collision on the South
ern Railway, halt way between North
Garden and Covesville, and 10 miles
south of Charlottesville, at about 1890
o'clock yesterday morning ii persons
were more or less seriously injured and
Others shocked among them George
Powell, colored, of this city, freight
fireman. whose left shoulder was injured.
Local passenger train No. 10 from Dan
Vile which arrives in Alexandria about
2 O'Clock, consisting Of baggage, mail,
combination and day coach, left Lynch
burg 40 minutes late. Two miles this
side of Coyesville the train was tagged
because of an accident to the engine Of
train No. 48, a through freight.
The passenger train drew up behind
the caboose of the freight, and, accord
ing to one of the passengers, had been
standing there a fraction of five minutes,
when the second section of the through
freight, coming at speed of 90 miles
an hour, hove into sight around sharp
curve, % yards distance, and crashed
into the passenger train. The day coach
was lifted into the air and shot into
combination coach, telescoping the lat
ter. Luckily. half of the passengers,
mostly men, had disembarked to ascer-
tain the cause of the delay, and thus
many lives were saved, as one-fourth
of the day coach which was telescoped
was practically vacated when the collision
occurred. The women and children,
who had remained in the car, were
caught and pinned down by the seats,
which were broken and piled on top of
them. Axes had to be brought into use
before any of the injured could be re-
leased. One woman Mrs. Profit
who was wedged between two seats and
painfully bruised and cut about the face,
pitifully cried out for someone TO come
and take her young baby, which she
held high above the wreckage covered
with blood from cut on her lip.
A wrecking train which left Char
lottesyille at noon with a half-dozen
physicians aboard returned an hour
and halt later with the injured.
When the collision occurred the rear
passenger coach was standing partly
on a trestle 100 or more feet above
Hardware river. The freight engine,
though badly smashed, remained on the
trestle, but the tender, followed by a
loaded box car, toppled over into the
river. Four adjoining box cars we're
derailed, and in attempting to remove
them later two fell into the river.
According to the story Of Charles
Turner. of Alexandria, fagman on the
passenger train, he went Immediately
after his train stopped on run to flag
the second section of the freight
CATER had gone a half mile, "
he said, 'the freight engineer an
swered my signal three-fourths OF
mile distant, but could not stop his
train" 1t was the opinion OF the train
master at the scene of the accident that
the brakes were not working properly.
Front Brakeman Douglas, who was rid
ing in the cab with the colored fireman,
George Powell, of Alexandria, was the
first to foresee the impending danger.
He yelled to the Engineer, II. c. Sharot,
to Jump, but the plucky engineman
stuck to his post, while Douglas and the
colored man leaped. From the lway the
engine cab was crushed in it is hard to
explain how Sharot escaped alive.
Sharot stated that he had been in five
wrecks. Out West on one occasion he
was pinned under his engine for seven
hours.
The news of the accident began to be
circulated in this city shortly before
noon, wrecking train having left here
about ten O clock in the morning which
had excited suspicion of another terrible
wreck. Before the close of the day
alarming rumors were being passed from
mouth to mouth. One was to the effect
that 81 people had been killed, another
that q we're crushed to death in the
wreck, still another that between 10
and / had met death, and the last one
had minimized the result Of the accident
to broken limb, said to have been
sustained by woman passenger.