Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-01-03
THIRTY-FIVE KILLED
: Hsad-On Collision Between Passenger
Trains Near Volland, Kansas
VICTIMS ARE NEARLY ALL hExlcANs
Wrsckage Takes Fire and Many Of the
Bodies Are Inoineratsd.
FFTY-FNE PERSONS ARE INJURED
Wreck Occurs Shortly After A. N. and
All Passengers Are Asleep.
BLAME is PLACED ON OPERATOR
Railway omcfsls say he Failed 20
Deliver Order-TeIeErapher Says
Engineer Passed Signal Set
Against Him.
Wreck Occurs Shortly After 8 A. N. and
All Passengers Are Asleep.
BLAME is PLACED ON OPERATOR

Against Him.
TOPEKA, KAN. Jan. 2-Four white
men, a negro train porter and about
thirty Mexican laborers lost their lives
and fifty-iive persons were injured when
two passenger trains on the Chicago, Rock
Island G. Pacific railroad collided head-on
four miles west of Volland, Kan, at $40
O'Clock this morning.
The dead:
JULIUS BURME1sTER, Davenport, Ia,
WILLIAM t. MILLER, Soldier City.
ALBERT LINK. 1893 Pine street. Topeka,
FRANK SAVER, passenger. New Lon
MEXICAN LABoRERs, numbering sup
posedly between twenty-five and thirty
UNIDENTIFIED WHITE MAN, Mitchell,
Ia.
The more seriously injured,
r. A. Hicks, zSl6 Tracy avenue, Kansas
CITY, injured internally; knee hurt.
bone broken; right ankle dislocated and
fractured; head bruised.
MO, head cut and hurt internally.
E. H.. Dauchey, assistant engineer left
ear badly torn; right leg crushed; right
w. A. Willett; Peabody, Kan, arms
burned; one rib broken; back sprained;
% IL
baggage and was crushed to death.
Man who has just returned from the
scene of the wreck says that over thirty
persons were burned to DEATH
1t IL impossible to identify the dead Mexi-
cans.
The trains were Nos. % and 30. running
between Chicago and Ei Paso. They met
on a sharp curve with fearful impact Ad-
ding to the horror of the collision, fire from
AZ. "a tI,o
tive was communicated to the splintered
wreckage and spread rapidly. consuming
Ave of the forward cars of train No. %,
west bound, and burning a number OF the
passengers. All but three of those who
perished are thought to have been Mexican
iaborers, who were on their way from Co
iumbus Junction, o., to Mexico.
Operator Ia Blamed.
The officials Of the company place the
blame on John Lynes, the 1s~year-old tele-
graph operator at Volland. who failed to
stop train No % at his station after recetv-
ing orders to hold It there until train No.
30 nad passed. Lynes is being heid by the
authorities of Wabunse county at Alma for
Investigation.
BY the, light OF the flaming wreckage
passengers who were uninjured worked he
roically to save those who were pinned fast
beneath the mass OF splintered timbers and
twisted ironwork. The lack of tools to work
with in chopping away the sides OF the cars
was a great hindrance to the early rescue
work.
In an hour and a half from the time Of
the wreck the first relief train, from Nc
FarIand. Kan. bringing surgeons and help
ers reached the scene. In the meantime
the rescue work was being pushed by vol
unteers, while surgeons for miles around
cd fO ha
services Another relief train from Topeka
and two wrecl1ing trains soon arrived, and
all of the dead and injured that had been
taken from the wreck were brought to
this city, where the injured were placed
In hospitals. Two injured Mexicans died
on the way TO Topeka, and Link. the negro
porter. died at st. Ormont hospital shortly
after being taken there When Link was
rescued It was necessary to tear his left
i'll from his body to extricate HIM from
tHt wreckage.
Five minutes before the trains crashed
together the operators for miles along the
line of the Rock Island system knew that
the collision was certain, as Lynes wired
from volland that he had let No. % pass.
but there was no earthly means of prevent
ing the disaster
At o'clock tonight the company COM
pIeted track around the wreck and the
line was open again.
Collision on Curve.
The wreck occurred on q grade. on a
curve and in a cut. No. e was running
slow on account Of the heavy grade and
heavy train No. so had Just reached the
top OF the hill when the engineer saw the
reflection OF the headlight OF the train
ahead. He shut down and the passengers
on his train said they were not running
more than ten miles an hour when the
crash occurred. No. % was not going more
than fifteen miles an hour at the time.
The injuries were caused more by the
setting OF the emergency brakes than by
the wreck itself. according to the pas.
sengers. The engineer OF No % set his
brakes and almost every passenger was
thrown out of his seat or berth. Immedi.
ately following this came the collision. The
Mexicans were pinioned under the seats
and the doors were jammed they could
not get out. In the chair car also many
passengers were held down by the seats
The train caught FIRE from the gas tanks
which were broken The passengers in tbs
rear cars escaped In their night clothes
and dressed in the mud beside the tracks
Then came the cries for he'~ among tho
Mexicans in the smoking c.. and tn,
people plnioned fast in the chair car. Every
man and nearly every woman on the trair
turned out to help rescue the unfortunates
Seven Mexicans were rescued from tn,
smoker and then the flames became so baC
Il was impossible for the men TO go insld,
the car.
woman burned to Death.
The injured were removed from the chat
cars with less difaeulty and apparently al
were rescued alive from these cars. How
ever, some OF the passengers on train No
q declared that woman and little glr
about 3 years old were burned In the chai
car +. A. sigourney from Iowa. one o
the homsseekers on the train. said;
Il saw that woman and her baby In tina
car The flames were all around her, bu
+ she seemed pinioned down and could no
get out and none OF us was able TO Eeac
her. Halt a dozen men tried 20 fight thei
way into the car. but could not get throug
the flames, and we had to stand there an
csntinaea On Third PaSal