The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1907-01-03
Y-THREE KILLED
Two Trains Collide in Suburb of
Washington, D. c., With Dis
aStrOuS elimination.
Negligence of Employees, Who Have
Been Placed Under Arrest,
Said to Be Responsible.

AL, IN. L., Oh DeC0uU0f n, OCCurr0u
at Terra Gotta, suburb of Washing
ton, D. G., on Sunday Evening at $3.50
5'clock. F:fty-three persons we're
zilled and over hundred injured.
The wreck was caused by an engine,
/ drawing eight empty cars, running
into local No. 66 known as the Fred
erick express, just as the passenger
train had pulled out from the station
bound for Washington. Engineer Hill
debrand, who was in charge of the
"dead'' train, declared that, on ac-
count of the dense fog, he was unable
to distinguish the signal light at the
Takoma Park block station. Tower
Operator Phillips declares that the
danger signal was in it's proper place
and that Engineer Hildebrand's train
passed the tower station going at a
speed of from fifty to sixty miles an
hour.
The train of empties crashed into
$ the rear coach and plowed it's way
!, through the coach, splitting it apart
as if it had been paper. One side of
the car toppled to one side of the track
and the other fell on the other side.
It was split as clearly as if it had
: been severed by gigantic ak.
The train plowed it's way through
the second coach piling the seats and
passengers in mass at the forward
end. Six or eight people were killed
in this car and a dozen we're injured
more or less seriously. What had
happened to the third or rear coach
the engineer of the local did not know
.ntil he walked back to the station for
N assistance and found that even worse
7 accident had befallen it.
b The rear coach, which was crowded
: people standing in the aisle, was
i he'd to kindling wood. The heavy
ar engine went through il
co'ao end to the other. The trucks
were thrown into the ditch as if they
had been made of tin. The roof fell
one way and the sides another.
The members of the crew of the train
causing the wreck were placed under
arrest by the local police. They are
Harry Hildebrand, engineer; Frank
Hotfmier, conductor; j. G. McCul-
lum, fireman; Robert Rutter, brake
man, and W. A. Norris, baggage
master. All we're taken to the Tenth
precinct police station.
The officials of the Baltimore &
Ohio railroad have begun an investi.
cation at Baltimore to determine the
T cause of the catastrophe. Engineer
Hildebrand and the fireman of the
dead" train, Tower Operator Phil
lips, and all others in any way con-
nected with the operation of the train
will be examined.
The scene after the accident was
sickening. Bodies had been hurled
on every side and it was after mid
night before all the dead had been COL
lected and placed on the special train
tor Washington. It was only few
minutes after the collision until
nearly all the residents of Terra
! Gotta, sparsely settled village, had
gathered at the scene of the disaster
and begun the work of removing the
dead and rescuing the injured from
beneath the masses of debris. The
workers labored under great difficult
ties, for many Of the injured we're
wedged beneath the wreckage, and
numbers of them died before thew
could be rescued. The many acts OF
heroism and self-sacri6ce that were
performed will never be known.
A detachment of forty policemen
were sent from Washington and nearly
/. fifty physicians responded to gen
eral call, but fully three-quarters OF
an hour elapsed before the doctors
were on hand to relieve the Injured
/ For more than three hours after
the fatal crash occurred the police
and citizens were still taking bodies
from under the great pile of wreckage,
which was strewn for fully quarter
OF a mile along the track. AS the in
jured were taken from under the de-
bris and while the physicians were Civ
ing them all the relief possible. Cath
Ollie priests were administering the
! last rites to many of the dying.
Women and children Joined in the
work and everything possible was
sdone to relieve the sufferings of the in
,6ured.