The Pensacola journal., 1905-03-07
MAIL CLERK INSTANTLY KILLED
AND ENGINEER AND FIREMAN
PINNED UNDER ENoINE-ENeI-
NEER DIED WITHIN TWO HOURS
AFTER ACCIDENT.

The jacksonville Times-Union of
Sunday contained the following &C
count of the wreck on the Seaboard
Air Line on Saturday in which two'
lives were lost. The mail clerk, who
was killed. Rufus E. Bass, entered the
postal service at Pensacola and was
well known in this city:
Two men were killed and one so
seriously injured he is not expected to
recover, as a result of a railroad accl-
dent at Sanderson, Baker county, yes
terday morning
The dead are:
RUFUS E. BASS, railway mail
clerk, crushed to death.
GEORGE CARTER, engineer Of the
train, pinned under the engine, and
died within two hours.
The injured man is Howard Smith.
colored. fireman. crushed and scalded;
will probably die.
The wrecked train was No. 77,
which left here at sos a. m, for Tai
lahassee, River Junction, Pensacola
and New Orleans. The train consist
ed Of mail car, express car, baggage
car, three day coaches and two Pull
man sleeping cars. Every seat in the
two sleepers were occupied by people
going TO New Orleans TO attend the
Mardi Gras celebration. The day
coaches were also well filed with
passengers.
Into Open Switch.
The train was going at a good
speed when il reached the switch OF
the siding, about five hundred yards
east of the depot at Sanderson. A
freight train was standing on the sid
ing with the engine headed toward the
switch. On account of the burning
woods in the vicinity the engineer of
the passenger train evidently did not
notice that the switch was open.
Into the open switch the engine of
the passenger train ran and although
Engineer Carter shut of steam and
applied the brakes and then attempt
ed TO reverse the engine, the distance
between the two engines was too short
and the passenger engine crashed
into the heavy freight engine.
Caught Under Wreekaee.
The shock of the collision was ter
pletely wrecked, but neither turned
over. The engineer and fireman of
the passenger engine were caught in
the cab and pinned down by the tim
bers of the cab and the cab rods and
frame work of the engines Neither
the engineer nor fireman of the freight
train engine were in the cab of that
engine when the collision occurred,
and therefore, escaped injury.
When the two engines came to-
gether the sudden stop of the engine
caused the United States mail car i'm.
mediately behind to crash into the
tender, and the front end of the mail
car was completely demolished.
Mail Clerk Killed.
In the front end of the mail car
Rufus E Bass, the mail clerk in
charge, was at work, and as the frame
of the car was smashed in, he was
caught beneath the timbers and his
life was instantly crushed out.
Near the center of the car Mail
Clerk Joseph M. Ripley was at work
and while the crash threw him nearly
to the end of the car, he was not hurt
other than few bruises and was one
of the first to get to work to extricate
: Engineer Carter and Mail Clerk Bass
Passengers Escaped Injury.
The express car and the baggage
car and the passenger coaches and
sleeping cars all felt the force of the
collision. but beyond the breaking OF
the glass windows, the tumbling OF
! express packages and trunks and the
personal baggage of the passengers
no great damage was done.
While a number of the passengers
! were bruised by being thrown from