The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-07-21
Accident Which Occurred Near
Salem, Mich, Brings Death
To Men, Women and Child
rem Out on a Pleasure Trip.
MANY BODIES TAKEN
FROM THE WRECKAGE.
Blame for the Accident Placed
On the Crew of the Freight,
Which Had Orders to Give
The Right of Way.

Salem, Mich, July 2O--forty
persons were killed and about six
ty injured today, when a Pere Mar
quette excursion train of eleven coach
es, from Ionia, carrying the employees
of the company's shops there on their
annual excursion to Detroit, came in
to collision with a west-bound freight
train two miles east of this village, at
Washburn Crossing.
Eight Hundred on the Train.
There were 500 persons crowded in
to the eleven coaches of the train,
many of them women and children. all
bound for a holiday in Detroit. They
left their homes at Ionia at O'Clock
this morning.
The wreck occurred on a perfectly
straight, level piece Of track. The
heavy freight and passenger trains
came together with terrific force and
six of the eleven passenger cars were
entirely wrecked. When the unin-
jured persons recovered from the
shock. they at once began extricating
the dead and injured. Messengers
were rushed to this village and to Ply
mouth and all the doctors from this
place and neighboring villages were
hurried to the scene.
Farmers Hear the Crash.
Farmers who heard the crash came
to the rescue. A special train was
made up in Detroit and sent to
the wreck, a distance of forty miles,
with doctors. nurses. surgical instru-
ments and cots. BY the time this
train arrived there were several scores
of people waiting to receive medical
attention and over score of bodies
had been extricated and were lying on
the grass beside the tracks.
Panic Follows Crash.
Mrs Minnie Densmore, of Ionia a
passenger on the wrecked train. de-
scribing the horror, said: my husband
and myself were in the sixth coach,
right behind the first five in which the
greatest loss of life occurred. There
was terrible crash and the train came
to a sudden stop. throwing us out of
our seats. Instantly our car was fill
ed with terror stricken people trying
just what had happened. but every oc-
cupant of the car seemed to feel in
stinctively that there had been a trag-
edy. and seemed to be filled with fear
Their clothes were torn and they
inflicted severe bruises on one another
in their mad efforts to get to the
ground. That was before they real
lied that our car was not damaged.
and that they were not in danger
themselves. When we got out of the
coach, we found the engine and the
first five cars piled up beside the
tracks, while shrieks of pain and cries
for mercy filled the air.
THE first five cars were well filled
with people. and it is in these that
most of the bodies were found"
6Iames the Freight Crew.
After arriving here with the wreck
ing train from Detroit and looking ov-
er the situation, General Superinten-
dent Trump, said that the blame for
the wreck rested with the crew of
the freight, which was a west bound
local. The crew had orders, Mr.
Trump says. to wait at Plymouth for
the excursion train. which had the
rfght-of-way. Instead the train pro-
ceeded on toward Salem and the col
lision resulted Many of the freight
cars were also piled up in the heap
of wreckage, which is so great that it
required twelve hours to clear the
track. The injured were placed on
the special train and sent to Detroit.
Three of the coaches were telescop-
ed by the terrific impact of the heavy
freight train and the fourth and fifth
coaches were smashed into match
wood. Passengers on the wrecked
train say the passenger train was run
ming about forty miles an hour when
the trains met.
Some of Injured Will De.
The banks alongside the track at
the crossing where the collision oc-
CURED are ten feet high and the space
between them for several hundred
feet was literally filled with wreck
age. The passenger engine was COM
pleteiy wrecked and its crew killed, |
but in some miraculous manner the