The Penn's Grove record., 1905-08-18
TRAINS CRASH HEAD-ON
Mistaken Orders Cause Bad Accident
Near Lorain, Ohio.
TWELVE DEAD IN THE WRECK

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Passenger and Freight Collide on the
Nickel Plate Road-Most of the VIC
Tins Were italian Laberers-An Cars
Except the Sleepers ere TeIescoped-
Engineer q Hero.
Lorain, Ohio.-Twelye lives were sac
rifced by a trainman's blunder in q
head-on crash of a Nickel Plate passen-
ger train and a freight at Kishman's
switch on the shore of Lake Erie, near
Vermillion.
In the path Of the approaching fier
the engine crew of the freight careless
ly delayed their train. The engine
of the passenger train, running fifty
miles an hour, plowed through the
boiler of the monster freight engine
before it, and the crash broke coaches
into ~splinters and snapped and twisted
heavy steel.
Thirty-nine italian laborers, pockets
jingling with money after a pay night
and singing and chattering in a~nticipa-
ton of the return to Italy a few weeks
hence, were riding in the smoker of
the passenger. The impact sent the
car in the rear of the smoker half way
through it, and nine of the t%hirty-nine
were crushed to death in an instant.
When the crash came G. w. Poole,
a veteran in the service of the Nickel
Plate, remained at his post. After a
warning cry to his fireman, he told
him that he could jump and save his
life. The crash caught Poole in the
engine cab, and the bleeding and dying
man hung there in the sight of the
panic stricken passengers for many
long minutes before he was released.
Joseph Alexander, of Jersey City,
proved by a letter found on his body
to be a deserter from the Navy, was
crushed in the demolished smoker.
The engineer Of the freight train was
D. w. Derby, of Conneaut, and the
fireman G. w. Canaan, also of Con-
neaut. The engineer had been given
orders to take the siding at Kishman's
for the eastbound passenger.
According to the Gespatcher's sheet
the freight was to take the switch for
No. 81, the passenger, to pass. Figures
obtained by the Appropriated time Of
the occurrence of the wreck and the
time the train left Lorain show it re-
quired the freight almost twenty-five
minutes to cover the seven miles. This
is II of the reasons for the disaster
as advanced by railroad men
The freight train, ordered to take the
Kishman siding, did not stop at the
opening, but proceeded for some rea-
son unexplained for the length of a
hundred cars down the main track.
The scene at the wreck was a fearful
one.
Screams from the injured and fright
ened Italians almost Oyercame the
noise from the cracking wood and es-
Gaping steam. The two day coaches
were telescoped. Death came almost
instantly to the few of the passengers
sitting in the real of the smoker.
The seats were ground into straws
by the force of the collision and the
mangled bodies of the foreigners were
crushed beneath the twisted iron and
the timbers of the side of the coaches.
Farmers from the immediate neigh
borhood came to the aid of the train
men and the passengers. The passen-
gers in the three Pullmans were only
stunned by the shock. They hurriedly
dressed and in scanty attire helped
pull out the bodies of the unfortunates
in the front coaches.
A trainman said that not one of the
passengers, many apparently men of
wealth, shirked, but all untiringly aid
ed in the rescue. The bodies of the
eight dead Italians We're pulled
through the windows of the wrecked
smoker, one by one.
One Of the cars but slightly damaged
was converted into a morgue, and ter
bodies were kept at the scene for three
hours until the arrival of the Coroner.
The death of Engineer Poole was
tragic. The part played by his fire.
man, F. E. Haefner, was that of. a
hero. Held as if by a wedge in the
wreckage of the splintered cab, the
engineer hung for minutes head down
ward. Haefner, who had jumped after
calling to his chief, stood neal by
leading the band Of men with axes
urging Poole to be brave.
Pillows were brought from a house
and after the release of the engineer
he was carefully carried to the bank
at the side of the track. There fol
nearly two hours he lay watching The
work Of rescue. Haefner was con
stantly at his side until he died.
The band of italian victims of thu
wreck were employees of Kronenbers
& Co., of Buffalo, a big contracting
firm. They had been working at Ole
Fort Seneca and were being taken tt
B%rookfield, Ohio, to work on a similar