The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1904-09-28
FFTY-FOUR KILLED
AND ONE HUNDRED AND
THIRTY INJUR ED ON PAS
SENGER TRAINS IN
COLLISION.
Scenes About the Wreck Are Most
Horrible-All the Passengers
in One of the Coaches,'
Save Two, Are Killed
Accident in Ten
nessee-Other
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-ACCiu6ut III lSus
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Knoxville, Ten, Sept. 24.-Run-
ming on roadbed in supposedly
high condition of maintenance, and
having about them every safeguard
known to modern railroad, two
trains on the Southern railway car
rying heavy lists of passengers met
head-on near Hodges, Tenn, today,
sending ffty.four people to death
and injuring 130, several of whom
will probably die. Some of the
bodies have not yet been recovered,
and many remain unidentified.
This appalling loss of life and
manning of the living resulted ap-
parently from the disregarding of
orders given to the two trains to
meet at a station which has for a
long time been their regular meet
ing point. This action on the part
of the engineer Of the west-bound
train is made more inexplicable by
the fact that the accident happened
in broad day light, and according to
the best information obtainable he
had the order in little frame in
front of him as his engine rushed
by the station, and mile and a
half further on came upon an east
bound passenger train. The posi-.
bility exists that the engineer may
have been asleep.
The trains were on time, and were
not making over 35 miles an hour,
yet the impact as they rounded a
curve and came suddenly upon each
other was frightful. Both engines
and the major portions of both
trains were demolished, and why
the orders were disregarded or mis-
interpreted will probably never be
known, as the engineers of the two
trains were crushed, their bodies
remaining for hours under the
wreckage of their locomotives.
The collision was between east.
bound passenger No. II, and west
bound passenger No. Is, from Bris'
toll. No. IL was heavy train, car
rying three Pullman's, two day
coaches and mail and baggage car
No. Is was light local train. Ths
greatest loss of life occ Cured on thu
eastbound train, while on the west
bound train only the engineer and
fireman were killed.
Relief trains were dispatched
from Knoxville within an hour
and all the physicians in the vicin
/ ity of the wreck we're doing all they
could when the local corps arrived
The first train arrived here from
J the scene of the wreck at 4:2O o.
| clock, brir ging about 70 of the in
jured. Six of the injured aboarc
had died while en- route to the city
and after their bodies were takel
off, the train proceeded to a poin
near the general hospital, where
large force of physicians were read!
to receive the wounded. The mex
train from the wreck arrived short
/ ~ after 8 o'clock. 1t brought tn
bodies of 43 dead. The six other
who died en- route bring the list u]
to 40, and there at least six more a
the scene of the wreck, none of tn
bodies of the trainmen having ye
been recovered.
John w. Brown, of Rogersville
Ienn.,a newspaper man, was il
the westbound train. When tn
fearful jolt cams, he said,. all tn
seats in the car were torn loose an,
people and seats. were hurled to tn
front end of the car. When he re
covered from the shock he hear,
the screams and groans of the In
jured and dying in every direction
II left the car" said Mr.. Brown
s'as soon as I could and walked t
' the main part of the wreck. !
i, was the most horrible sight I eve
witnessed. I saw woman pinion
ed by a piece of split timber whic
had gone completely through be
body. A little child, quivering i
deaths agony, lay beneath the VIC
man. 1 saw the child die, and With
a few feet of her lay a woman's heae
the decapitated body being severs
feet away. Another little girl who's
body was fearfully mangled wa
piteously calling for her mother.
have since learned that she was Ii
cille Connor, of Knoxville, and ths
both of her parents were killed.