The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-01-10
TWO RAILWAY TRAINS
CRASH TOGETHER
Many Passengers Killed and
Wounded at VoIIand, Kan.
BLuNDER OF BOY OPERATOR
Trains Which We're to Meet at a Sta
ton on the Rock Island Road
Were Allowed to Pass on Single
Track.

AA0AAS NN
Topeka, Kan.-Thirty-hve persons,
all Mexicans but two, were killed and
ffty-fve persons were injured in a
head-on collision Of two passenger
trains of the Chicago, Rock Island
and Pacific Railroad near Volland.
The wreck occurred while both
trains were runningslowly on a curve
in a cut where the grade was steep.
All the killed were in the south
e bound train except a tramp, who was
on the baggage car of the north
bound train. This tramp, a negro
porter and a workman accompanying
a gang OF thirty-two Mexican labor
ers, we're the only Americans killed
so far as known, although passen1
gers say that a woman and a child
were burned in a tourist car.
There, were thirty=two Mexicans
and five Americans, composing a
gang of railroad workers, in the
smoking car of the S~Outh-bound
train. OF these, thirty Mexicans
were burned in the wreckage and
two died later.
Nearly every passenger in the
~south-bound train was thrown to the
car floor by the quick setting of the
emergency brakes. The Mexicans
we're pinioned under the seats and
the doors were damned so that they
could not get out. Many passengers
in the chair car were held down by
the seats.
The train caught fire from the gas
tanks, which were broken. The pas
sengers in the rear cars escaped in
night clothes, and dressed in the mud
beside the tracks. Then anne the
cries for help from the Mexicans in
the smoking a and the people pin
Toned fast in the chair car. Every
mar and nearly every woman o. the
train tried to rescue b unfortu-
mates, but the flames soon became too
hot to permit of approaching the car.
The injured were removed from
the chair cars with less difficulty,
and apparently all were rescued alive
from these cars. William Cane, con
ductor of the south-bound train, has
a broken collar bone and is much
bruised. He said:
"The train was just pulling clear
of the Volland yards. and was trav-
cling about thirty miles an hour. ]
dropped into the front seat of the
smoker and dozed. There were thir-
ty-two Mexicans, sitting two in a
seat, back of me, also Al Link, a ne
gro porter, a foreman and five other
passengers. I was awakened by the
setting of the brakes. l jumped head
first out Of the window and struck on
my shoulder. When / turned and
looked at the train I saw flames leap
ing fifty feet high from the smoker
The foremost tourist sleeping cal
of the soutn-bound train vas also
burned, but all TIE occupants escaped
serious injury.
Blame for the collision seems tt
rest entirely upon John Lynes, nine
teen years old, the telegraph operator
at Volland. Orders had been ISSUED
for No. 20 and No. so to pass a
Volland, and these orders had beef
sent to the operator there, who wa
Instructed to hold No. 90. 1t is saiC
that he failed to deliver the orde
to the crew of No. 20, and the latte
train went by, meeting No. 80 a few
miles west. Five minutes before tn
trains met Lynes called up the dis
patcher and wired him as follows:
"No. 20 has gone, and I have gon
also"
Then he left his key. Even wit
this dispatch in hand there was n
way of preventing the wreck. H
was afterward arrested and put j
Jail at Volland. 49,