The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1903-01-02
IN E
Twenty-eieht Lives Crushed Out In an
Ontario Disaster.

Ontario Disaster.
London, Ont, Dec. 3O.-In the head
on collision Friday night nea Wan
stead on the Grand Trunk railway be-
tween a west-bound passenger train
and a fast freight, tw~enty-eight per-
sons we're killed and thirty were in
jured.
While several of the injured are still
in a serious condition, it is expected
that all will recover.
Many of the dead were mutilated
and the now about the wreckage was
crimson with blood.
The Pacific express was two hours
late and running at high speed when it
reached Wanstead. The freight was
trying to make a siding, but failed.
When the through train struck the
freight there was a disastrous crash.
The locomotives reared their pilots
high in the air and tumbled into the
ditch. The baggage car of the express
train t~elescoped with the smoking ear
and here the death list was made.
The Pullman sieepers did not leave
the rails and their occupants escaped
except for bruises.
Blizzard Adds to Horror.
The darkness of night and the rag
ing of a blizzard added horrors to the
wreck. Fortunately, the fire horror
was averted.
In the binding snowstorm neither
engineer saw the other train approach
ing, apparently. The shock was aw-
full. The trains came together square
ly head-on. In a second the baggage
and express cars of the passenger
train telescoped into the day coach.
This day coach was reduced to splint-
ers and fragments back to the last
three windows.
1t was crowded with human beings,
and the resultant loss of life and IN
jury a narrowing. For three hours
or more, wounded and manned passen-
gers were pinned underneath wreck
age. crying piteously for help while
they suffered from exposure to the ell
ementS.
Exposure undoubtedly fastened the
death of some of the more seriously in
jured. The bodies were taken from the
wreck frightfully mangled, some of
them almost beyond recognition.
Operators Story.
Andrew Corson, the operator at
Watford. the first station east of the
wreck. whose failure to deliver orders
to Conductor McAuliffe of the express
train. to pass freight at Wanstead, is
said by the Grand Trunk Of
ficials to have caused the wreck, yes
terday afternoon made his first state
ment since the wreck. He says he re-
ceived the order for No. 5, the express,
to pass the freight at Wanstead at
9:4S o'clock, but declares positively
that a few minutes later Dispatcher J.
G.. Kerr at London, called him and
ordered him to bust" or cancel the
order. He said:
About 9:45 o'clock, after calling
Wyoming and ascertaining that the
freight was there, the dispatcher called
me rapidly a half dozen times. When
| answered on the wire he told me to
bust this order. l wrote bust it
across the order just as No. 5 was
coming in. After the train had started
and was out of reach the dispatcher
learned the freight had left Wyoming.
l told him l
Could Not Stop
No. s, as it had left. He Immediately
began calling Kings Court Junction,
the station between Watford and Wan
stead on the railroad wire, and l tried
to raise them on a commercial wire.
We both failed to do this, however,
until the express had passed the juno
ton"
Corson admitted that he knew it
was against the rules of the company
to cancel a train order without send
ing a substitute for it, but he said that
the dispatcher was his superior officer
and he disliked to question his order
or dispute his authority for taking this
action.
The order book in the local Grand
Trunk Office does not show that the
order was busted" or cancelled, as
Corson claims. According to the book
it was still in force and should have
been delivered to the conductor of the
| express.
Kerr has made no statement, not
| even to the railway officials, and will
| not until he takes the stand at the in
quest.