Rocky Ford enterprise., 1906-03-23
FEARFUL WRECK and LOSS OF LIFE
I'd. &R. G. RAILROAD COLLISION

Pueblo. Colo.-The Adobe wreck will
rank as one OF the great railroad dis
asters In the history OF railroadinS. In
other wrecks tho loss OF life has been
| greater, but none was productive OF
scenes more horrible. The collision
happened at Adobe. four miles east OF
Florence. at $3.50 o'clock Friday morn.
ing. A binding blizzard was raging
and the thermometer was degrees
below zero. Rio Grande passenger
train No. 8 from Denver collided with
No. lG from Salt Lake. Operator J. s.
Lively at Swallows Is said to have
slept and failed to deliver orders.
| The accident happened on the same
curve where about year ago seven
teen persons were killed.
Two great mogul locomotives were
hauling No. 8. the westbound train.
and they bore down on the engine pull.
Ing No. 10. around the outer edge OF n
sharp curve encircling the high blum
| ut the point OF the wreck. on a down
grade at the rate OF forty.hve miles an
hour.
| Going thirty miles an hour was No,
lG. Shut OF from each others View
until almost together. there was no
chance for brakes.
The engineers who lost their lives
hardly knew what happened. The
great engines came together In the
light OF their headlights with tremen'
dous force.
The leading engine OF No. 3's double
header was jammcd and crushed be.
tween the mogui behind II and the one
pulling No. 10 like an empty tomato
can. The sheathins of one set OF
boiler tubes covered that OF another
great energy generator.
| Cars piled up In high masses OF steel
beams and woodwork and cavcd In and
down on their slumbcring occupants.
The scene that followed. as de-
scribed by tho few survivors who have
been able to talk cohcrcntly. can only
be icf, to the imagination OF people
fortunate enough not to have been
| present.
No man can say to-day. tomorrow or
next week how many travellers met
their doom In that Irresistible grind OF
wood and steel.
Sixteen charrcd. mangicd and utterly
unrccornixabic bodies lie In the morgue
Mt Pueblo. six more have been idcnu.
ned. ana more than n score were doubt
less burned to ashes.
Conservative estimates on the total
loss OF life place the number OF dead
st ihIrty.fiyc. Rio Granpc officials ut
Pueblo insists that the exact number
| of persons on the two trains cannot be
ascertnincd: that Il In impossible.
The Republican OF Sunday morning
says:
Operator l.. s. Livc>y has been sns-
| pended from further duty and Opera
| tor VIM. vanDcuscn will be relieved.
| 4, Ia stated, as soon ns n suitable man
can be sent to Swallows to take his
place. IA far aE the train dispatch
cr's Office In Pueblo know. say the men
In charge. vanDuscn was working his
own shift Mt the Swallows station all
the time and the first information re-
cciycd by the ONCE was when the
wreck occurred.
| II Is understood that Van Dcuscn
\ had made arrangements to lay on and
/ had come into the city to spend the
| night, Il is not known definitely
whether he did this or not. The opin'
| ion OF the railway men as expressed IL
that Lively was directly responsible
and that Van Dcuscn to some extent
| Indirectly for the catastrophe.
Walter Murphy. the Florence oil
driilcr who was supposed TO have per
ished in the car while rcscuing pas.
sengcrs from the flames. has turned
up safe and sound. with but a Few
scratches. II appears that he rescued
n number of persons and then went
with the injured people to Portland
station, where he assisted In caring
for them. before he took the time to re-
turn to his home.
A hcartrcuding story OF mother love
and selfsacrifice IL told by Conductor
Kroegcr. who had charge Of the Pull
mans on the westbound train.
81 saw one mother" he said. with
| n little babe in her arms. She knew
that II was almost an impossibility to
be saved herself. but her only thought
was Of her child. One hand was pin.
ioned by the debris. but her head ana
| the other arm were free.
"She was trying to keep her head
from the flames and with her free hand
was holding the infant "a high In the
air as she could. Just as we were
about TO reach her she gave gasp and
fell back into the flames with the
babe
There Is only one change in the
death list as made up yesterday. The
name of Patrick Murphy Is stricken
out and that Of Thomas Brennan sub
stituted. The list follows:
William Hollis. engineer. Pueblo
Walter Cosslett. engineer. Pueblo.
II. d. Suddeth. fireman. Pueblo.
Ed. T.. Baird. deputy sheriff, Denver.
Archibald Whitney, convict. Denver.
L. NJ. Mcfarland, messenger, Den