The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-01-30
APPALLING DISASTER
ON B. 8 0. RAILROAD
Engine PIows Through Local Train
Near Washington.
TRACKS STREWN WITH DEAD

Thirty-eight Die in Wreck-Thrce
Crowded Cars Demolished
Dead Train Ran Past Signal in
Thick Fog.
Washington, D. C.-The fatal err
ror of an engineer in passing a
block signal light that he could not
see in the fog, thus letting two
trains in con the same block to
follow each other over the same
track, was the cause of a frishtful
rear-end collision on the Baltimore
G Ohio Railroad at Terra Gotta, in
the outskirts of this city.
The bodies of thirty-eight have
been found, some Of them mutilated
beyond all hope OF Identification. 1t
is by no means certain that this
completes the list of killed. 1t may
reach forty, or ever fifty.
There were 200 passengers on the
wrecked train, and more than forty
per cent. were either killed or In
jured.
The dead and injured were strewn
along the track for half a mile.
Sixty injured have been taken to
various hospitals.
Four men have been arrested in
an effort to fix the blame for the
disaster. They are Engineer Henry
Hildebrand, Of the real train, that
caused the collision; his fireman,
Mclean; Conductor Hofinger and
the signal man at Takoma Park.
They are locked up in the station
at Terra Gotta. Hildebrand is al
most demented. He babbles of the
wreck from which he escaped mi
raculously.
It was precisely the same kind OF
an accident that snuffed out the life
of President Samuel Spencer, Of the
Southern Railroad, on his own road,
near Lynchburg, thirty days ago.
The identified dead are: DR.. E.,
Oliver Bell, optician, the Farragut,
Washington; Edward M. Belt, white,
fourteen years old, address unknown;
Commodore P. Brown, sixty years
old, address unknown; Dan N. Carr,
Kingston, Md; Elder o. L. Daley,
Newark, Ohio; C. J. r. Hall, Balti-
more; DR.. E. Gather Harris, Wash
ington; George Higbie, eight years
old, Brookland, D. c.; Henry Higbie,
Brookland, father Of George Higbie;
T. A. Kelly, Kensington, Md; Profess
sor King, organist Wesley Chapel,
K%ensington, Md; Miss Kohl "a Y. M.
C. A. card was found in her pocket);
Mary Leffold, thirty years old, en-
rJo,o Dnroo,- Tn 1rouipo and prinf-
ing, Washington; Lee Lowe, Wash
ington; A. Lee Lowe, No. 1912 F
street, Washington; Mrs. J. Nc
Caghey and her fourteen-year-old
son; Elizabeth Purman, Takoma
Park; Norman Rogers, white, Ma
rion, Ind; I. Rupert, Washington,
merchant. 80
The disaster occurred in a dense
fog. The wrecked train was, a local
from Frederick, Md. 1t was run
down by a special equipment train,
comprised of eight empty cars. Two
of the coaches on the local were re-
duced to splinters. The other two
coaches, one a smoker, were shat
tered from end to end, but remained
on the trucks.
The local was just pulling out Of
the Terra Gotta station, after taking
on about a dozen passengers. The
special came flying along at sixty
miles an hour and drove with ire
sistible force through the two rear
coaches.
A spur of track runs up the side
of the hill to the terra Gotta works
behind the station. There was a fat
car at the top of the hill, and, work
ing free, it ran away down the hill
and crashed into the wreck. A score
of passengers struggling to release
themselves from the wreckage were
caught before the fat car. which al
most cut clean through the smoking
car.
Six bodies have been taken from
under the front end of the fat car,
and the railroad officials say 1t will
never be known in which OF the two
crashes these passengers met death.
The first news Of the accident
came from Brookland, where 1t was
carried by United States District At
torney D. w. Baker. Although Ba-
ker's right heel was cut off in the
wreck, and he was injured inter-
na!ly, he walked the mile and a
quarter to Brookland and over the
telephone sent in the call for ambu-
lances. He collapsed. when he was
attempting to hang up the receiver
and is in a serious condition. His
heel was cut of clean below the
ankle. He stopped the flow of blood
by binding his leg with a silk hand
kerchief, and, without waiting at the
wreck, started at once on his ter
rible trip. 1t is feared 1t may be
necessary to amputate his foot.
Great difficulty was experienced IN
giving assistance to the injured and
in removing the dead owing to the
remoteness of Terra Gotta, which de-
spite it's comparative nearness to the
capital, is a rural spot without police
or postof1ce. The situation was made
worse by the telegraph Office there
being closed for the night. There
are only a few houses in the place,
and with no facilities for helping the
seriously injured all the helpless
taken from the wreck we're forced to
lie on the ground in unrelieved
agony until Drs. Frischern, Stern
and Brooks arrived from Brookland