The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-07-22
More Than 10 Injured 10 Pere
Marquette Collision
IRAINSC CRASH ATSALEM, M.
Forgot That Excursion Train Had the
Right Of Way. Passenger Was
Running at 80 Miles an
Hour.

Detroit, Mich, July 22.--Thirty peo-
PIE are dead and more than 10 injured,
many Of them seriously, as the result Of
head-on collision which occurred Sat
urday when Pere Marquette excursion
train bound from Ionia, Mich, to De-
lroit crashed into d west bound freight
near Salem, Mich. The trains came to-
gether in a cut located at sharp curve
Of the Pede Marquette railroad about a
mile east of Salem.
The passenger train of II cars, carry
ing the Pere Marquette shop employees Of
Ionia and their families To Detroit for
their annual excursion, was running at
high speed, probably so miles an hour,
down d steep grade. It struck the light
er locomotive Of the freight train with
such terrific force al to turn the freight
engine completely around But behind
the two locomotives six cars Of the pas
senger train lay pied in hopeless
wreck. Four of the passenger coaches
remained on the track unchanged These
were used to convey the dead and in
jared TO Ionia. One coach was entirely
unchanged, with only its forward trucks
off the rails. The rear five cars were the
ones unchanged The two coaches next
ahead of these were telescoped. The
next car forward stood almost on 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. Por
tions of it and of the locomotive tenders
and freight cars were piled in an indies
cfibable mass of debris.
James Boyle, farmer, was working in
field probably 400 feet away from the
track when the two trains approached
from opposite = directions. The freight
was moving slowly up the heavy grade,
and had Just, reached the curve when the
passenger train approached running at
high speed. Boyle saw the passenger
engineer shut off bis steam and apply
the brakes and saw the crews OF both
Engines Jump Just before the crash. He
ran to the tracks where he found the I'M.
injured passengers from the rear coaches
running forward and Joined with them in
pulling out the injured who could be seen
on every hand The dead were placed in
row alongside the track and the in
iured were made as comfortable as pos.
sible under the circumstances and until
the arrival Of wrecking trains from De-
tfoit, Grand Rapids and Saginaw, which
made 1t possible TO send the people to
Ionia and Detroit. The % dead bodies
first taken from the wreck were shipped
to Ionia and The injured we're placed on
two trains, one Of which headed for De-
troit and the other for Ionia. There were
about 35 injured people on each train.
Later IN the day the body OF ed" Cor
Rin, the head brakeman of the passenger
train was taken out Of the wreck. Fire.
man Knowles died ON the relief train on
the way to Detroit, making the list of
dead 81, with a possibility that more
bodies might be found in the wreokage,
and that several OF the injured may
die.
Responsibility is put squsrely upon
the crew Of the freight train by officials
Of the road. Officials arrived at the scene
soon after the wreck, and secured from
she crew of the freight the orders under
which it was running and which clearly
showed the position of the excursion
train, and that the freight had encroach-
ed upon the other trains running time.