The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1903-12-31
RED SIGNAL LIGHT Is BLOWN
OUT DURING A FIERCE
BLIZZARD.
TRAINS MEET ON A LONG CURVE
REDUCED TO A PILE OF BROKEN
AND TWISTED TIMBER
AND METAL.

twenty-five persons were killed and
tbirty-eight injured, several OF them
proDauiy fatally, in head-on COILS
ioa between two Pere Marquette rail-
way passenger trains near East Paris
Saturday evening.
It was the most disastrous wreck in
the history of the Pere Marquette sys-
tenn, and instead of being caused by
mans carelessness or mistake, is
charged to the high wind which ex-
tinguisAed the red signal light in the
order board at McCord's station,
where the west.bound train was ex-
pected to stop and receive new orders.
Two minutes before the train rushed
by McCords station the light was
burning, says the operator, but in that
brief interval the blizzard that was
raging extinguished it and train No. 5
flashed by the station to crash into
east, bound train No. 6. near East
Paris. The trains, which were two Of
the finest on the system, were reduced
tc a pile of broken and twisted tim
Der and metal, with dead and injured
Pinned Down and Crushed
by the fragments. The five cars and
two large locomotives were damned
into a space ordinarily occupied by
three coaches and the wreckage was
rtlewn across the track from fence to
fierce When train No. whizzed by
McCord instead OF stopping, the
frightened operator notified the dis
patcher that his light had been ex-
tinguished. He reported this fact and
then there was but one action to take.
The collision was inevitable.
The dispatcher's Office called for
medical 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-run-
ming trains to see each other through
the driving blizzard in time to even
slow down, and in a few minutes word
came from the conductor of No. 5
that they had crashed together and
that there was an
Awful Loss Of Life.
The west-bound engine drove
through No. 6's engine like wedge,
separatl < the gear from the boiler
and standing the latter on end like a
broken, twisted shell. The running
gear was crumpled up like so much
Irvine. 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. landing
In some cases, ten feet from the en-
gine. The boiler of Engine 397 turned
over several times, and the very force
CT the twisting impact seems to have
been the means OF saving the life OF
Engineer Waterman. He was flung
forty feet over the fence at the edge
of the right of way. Moon, his fire.
man, was sitting on the opposite side
vi Tic eau, lV, wv, Wdo
clear of the pile of wreckage.
AS the trains came together the
steam domes OF each boiler blew off,
releasing their contents. else there
would nave been added horrors from
The clustering Steam.
According to statements made by
officials of the .Pere Marquette, the
east-bouna train was travelling down
grade at the rate of sixty miles an
hour The west-bound train was
Climbing the hill at speed of forty
niles an hour. The former carried
probably seventy-fve passengers,
willie the latter is believed to have
beer carrying at least 125 persons.
The two trains collided at about the
middle of long, sweeping curve,
tllee-quarters of mile west of East
Paris. On the inner side of the curve
is a high embankment, preventing a
view o. the track ahead.
When the engines met one turned
completely over and lay on it's nose
In O direction opposite to that in which
IL had been travelling. The other
climbed the wreckage, its boiler torn
from the trucks, standing erect in the
80 tho dabric