Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1906-03-22
MANY VICTIMS \
OF AWFUL WRECK
Passenger Train In Collision
Near Florence,
Colorado
MANY PERISH IN THE FLAMES
At Least Thirty-fve Persons Are
Dead as Result Of ths Disaster,
While Probably Two Score Were
Injured.

IuSUiO, SOiO., MATCH Il.-ADOuC
forty charred bodies lie in the ruins
of two passenger trains on the Denver
& Rio Grande railroad which were
wrecked by head-on collision at
2:10 o'clock yesterday morning at a
point between Beaver and Adobe,
about % miles west of Pueblo. Part
Of the train was burned. Fifteen
persons severely injured in the dis
aster are lying on cots at st. Mary's
hospital in this city, with the pros
pect that some of them will be added
to the death list.
For two hours and half nude men
thrown from their berths by
the impact of the two trains rushing
together, frantically tore at burning
timbers vainly endeavoring to extri-
cate scorching, dying people from an
awful fate. When the first relief
train arrived from Pueblo there was
little left in the cars that were burned
to indicate that there had been
precious freightage of human lives,
excepting piles of scorched flesh and
smouldering bones.
Passenger train No. 3, the Utah
and California express, left this city
soon after midnight heavily loaded
with passengers and pulled by en-
gines 529 and 100. The forward
coach of the hapless train was well
filled-in fact, it was difficult to find
a seat anywhere and number OF
passengers were standing in the
aisles. Just as this train was round
q hntx
and Adobe, train No. 16, eastbound,
running at a high rate of speed,
whirled around the curve and crashed
into the heavy train which was
| climbing the sharp grade. In an in
| st-lt all was confusion.
Passengers were hurled from their
| seats and covered with splinters of
wood and flying glass. Many were
killed in the awful impact and the
others caught beneath the wreckaga
filed the air with their cries for
assistance. A moment later the gas
with which the train was lighted ex-
ploded and in an instant the wreck
age was blazing fiercely.
| The cause of the wreck is attribut-
ed to the fault of an employee of the
road to deliver an order which chang
ed the meeting place of the two
trains. The Utah and California ex-
press No. 3, westbound, left Pueblo
over an hour and half late and
was given orders to meet the Colo
RADIO and New Mexico express No.
IL eastbound at Florence. This or
der was changed and the westbound
train was directed to pass the east
bound train at Beaver, about twelve
miles east of Florence. The order
should have been delivered to the
train crew at Swallow, but for some
reason still unexplained the operator
there neglected to do so.
Hardly had the trainmen and pas
sengers reached realization that all
was not right when the other hor-
ror, sheet of fire, ran through the
cars on both sides of the engines, and
in twinkling the cracking sound of
burning timbers started them to ac-
ton. In the forward coach Of the
west-bound train every seat was oc-
cupied by the passengers, many of
whom were homeseekers on their
way to the northwest. A number of
foreigners were among them and in
their terror they gave up life with
out making any attempt to reach
safety outside the burning car. Par
alyzed with fear and with prayers up
on their lips they sank to the floor of
the cars and were roasted alive. The
cooler ones in the rear, seeing their
| danger, rushed for the windows and
doors, and with the aid of the pas
sengers in the rear of the train and
those members of the train crew VINO
were unhurt managed to reach the
open air. Many of them were injured
more or less seriously by the rough
handling they received from flying
! glass and timbers.
| Although many were willing to un-
| derta e the risk, efforts to rescue
| those who remained in the burning
| cars would have been Suicidal as the
| heat was unbearable. When tie oc-
| cupants of the two standards and two
| tourist sleepers OF the westbound
saw that nothing could be done to
| check the flames they aided the train
men in pushing back the sleepers
and those cars were not damaged in
the least The sleepers on the east
bound train were also pushed back
and soon after they were placed out
of reach of the leaping flames. The
wrec ed cars were soon reduced to
a mass of smoldering runs.
The monetary damage to railroad
property is estimated at 100000. In
addition to this all the baggage on No.
16 was destroyed as well as the mail.
Later-Conservative estimates on
the total loss OF life place the num-
Der of dead at thirty-fve. Rio Grande
officials insist that the exact number
of persons on the two trains can not
be ascertained; that it is impossible.
Pueblo, Colo, March 1S.-Twenty-
two dead and twenty-five injured is
the best estimate of the casualties
in the wreck of the two Denver &
Rio Grande passenger trains which
collided on curve at a point twenty
five miles west of this city early Fri
day morning Only seven of the dead
bodies can be identified and only one
of these retains sufficient of the out
line of the features to be readily rec
ognizable. The remainder are known
from the fact tdat the location where
the charred bones were found were
the places where they would natur-
ally have been when the COLLISION nap
pened. Two telegraph operators are
held. in the public mind, to be re-
suonsible for the awful disaster, al
though no formal indictments has
gore out against them Both have