The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1907-07-25
DEATH FOR THIRTY
And Seventy Hurt in Crash
of Passenger and Freight
IMPACT WAS FRIGHTFUL
Victims Were Excursionists Bound
from Iona to Detroit, Michigan.
Cars Torn to Pieces and Pas
sengers Badly Mangled.

.
Thirty people are dead and more
than seventy injured, several of them
seriously, as the result of a headon
collision Saturday between Salem,
Mich, and Plymouth, when a Pere
Marquette excursion train, bound from
Iona to Detroit, crashed into west
bound freight in a cut located at q
sharp curve on the Pere Marquette
railroad, about a mile east of Salem.
The passenger train of eleven cars,
carrying the Pere Marquette shop en-
ployees of Iona and their families to
the Michigan METROPOLIS for their an.
nual excursion was running at high
/ speedy, probably fifty miles an hour
down a steep grade. It struck the
lighter locomotive of the freight train
with such terrific force as to turn
the freight engine completely around.
The wrecked locomotives lay side
by side, both headed eastward. Only
few of the freight cars were smash
| ed, and it was only few hours work
| to remove all traces CT them from the
scene. But behind the two wrecked To-
| motives, six cars Of the passenger train
lay piled in hopeless wreck. Four
Of the passenger coaches remained on
| the track unchanged and were used
| to convey the dead and injured to
Iona; one coach was entirely undam.
aged, with only it's forward trucks Of
the rails. These were the rear five
cars. The two coaches next ahead of
these were telescoped. The next car
forward stood almost on its end after
the wreck, its forward end resting on
the roadbed and the rear end high in
the air, upon the two telescoped
coaches that had been following it. Two
coaches were thrown crosswise of the
track and lay suspended from bank
to bank Of the cut, five Or six feet
above the rails OF the baggage car
not enough remained to show where
it had been tossed. Portions of bag
gage car and Of the locomotive ten
ders and freight cars were piled in
tangled mass Of debris.
James Boyles, a farmer, was working
in the field near the scene
when the two trains approached from
opposite directions: The freight came
slowly up the heavy grade and had
just reached the curve when the pas
senger train appeared running at high
speed. Boyles saw the passenger eaSi-
neer shut off his steam and apply
the brakes and saw the crews Of both
engines jump before the crash. He ran
to the tracks, where he found the un-
injured passengers from the rear
coaches running forward and joined
with them in pulling ou: the injured
who could be seen on every hand.
There was panic among the pas
sengers for a few minutes. Then, as
the uninjured people realized that they
had not been hurt, they rushed from
the cars to the rescue of their friends
and relatives who were .pinioned
among the wreckage. Families were
scattered. Mothers ran screaming up
and down, searching for their children,
while many of the young people were
as frantically calling for their par
ents.
The dead were placed in a row
alongside the track and the injured
were made as comfortable as possible
until the arrival of wrecking trains
from Saginaw, Detroit and Grand Rap
ids made. it possible to send them to
Iona and Detroit.
Responsibility is put squarely upon
the crew Of the freight train by off,
cials of the road, who arrived at the
scene of the wreck soon after the &C.
cident, and who secured from the
crew of the freight train the orders
under which it was running, and
which clearly showed the position Of !
the passenger excursion train and
that the freight train had encroached |
upon the other trains running time.
The freight crew explained simply |
that they had forgotten. The collision |
occurred at 9:13 o'clock, and the |
freight train should have reached Sa.
lem at 9:1O, to be within their or.
ders.
The crash of the colliding trains was
heard for great distance up and down
the tracks