The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1905-10-06
FATAL WRECK
IN ST. PAUL
A RUNAWAY STOCK TRAIN
CRASHES INTO A PAssEN-
GER TRAIN.
ONE KILLED: EIGHT INJURED
TWO SLEEPING CARS HURLED
OVER AN EiGHTEEN.FOOT
EMBANkM MENT.
AIR BRAKES REFUSE TO WORK
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WRECK
NOT YET SETTLED BY THE
OFFICIALS.

st. Paul. Oct. 3--A runaway Chicago
Great Western railway stock train
struck a 500 Line passenger train in
the yards at a switch between the
Fourth and the Sixth street bridges
shortly before 10 o'clock yesterday
morning, resulting in the death of one
woman, the serious injury of eight per-
sons and the slight injury of a dozen
more. The most hopefuI expectations
were expressed by the hospital author
tiles last evening, and all the victims
will recover with the possible excep-
tion of E. S. Martin of Minneapolis,
who it is feared has sustained in
ternal injuries which make it difficult
to determine just what his chances
are. The loss to the railway compa-
nies is estimated at $4,000.
Two Cars Thrown Over.
Two of the sleeping cars were picked
aut of the center of the train and
hurled over an eighteen-fOOt embank-
ment into Phalen creek ditch and the
front of the third car was crushed in
several feet The enkine of the freight
train plowed through the wreck until
it reached the same tracks as the
coaches remaining from the passenger
train, and then sand in the earth. The
stock car following the engine was
crushed and the stock in it broke for
liberty.
At the bottom of the embankment
twenty persons were imprisoned in the
overturned sleeping cars, lying amid
broken and splintered wood, unable to
aid themselves. The railway employees
in the yards turned out at once and be-
gan to extricate the passengers, and
notified.
Rescue the Injured.
The windows of the coaches were
quickly broken and the injured were
taken from the wreck as rapidly as
possible.
Some of the injured, as they were
pulled out of the windows and doors of
the sleeping cars, were covered with
blood from cuts on their heads and
faces, and their clothing was torn.
Others had escaped with scratches.
These we're soon gathered and sent to
Minneapolis in special car.
Those in the third sleeping car and
the dining car. that remained on the
tracks, were thrown from their seats
and bruised more or less.
The two Trains.
The 500 train, No. Z, was from Sault
Ste. Marie. After unloading the pas
sengers for st. Paul. the train started
for Minneapolis, the end of it's run.
There were thirty-two cars in the
stock train. The Chicago Great West
ern got its train at the Northern Pa
cific yards, Mississippi street, and was
on the way to South ST. Paul. Both
trains were on the main line of the
Northern Pacific to Minneapolis.
The 500 train came to stop at the
end of the union depot yards, as re-
quired by the regulations, and had
started again to climb the grade. The
stock train was coming down a grade
of 1.3 per cent toward where the track
crossed the track the passenger train
was on.
Brakes Don't Work.
On the way the air brakes refused
to work and the engineer found him
self unable to control the train. When
he discovered his predicament, he
says, he wbistled for brakes a long
distance before he reached the switch
where the collision occurred.
The responsibility for the wreck was
not settled by the afficials last even
ing. Patrick Maloney, switch tender
at the crossing, says he signalled the
passenger train to stop when he beard
the freight train whistling for brakes,
which indicated that the engineer was
in trouble, but it is supposed that Engi-
neer M. Haney did not see it. Beside,
he had got to the frog first and pre-
sumed that the stock train would stop
according to regulations. The 500 off,
cials state that the passenger train
had the right of way.
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