The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1907-09-21
1NENIYFOURD E|N WRECK.
VERMONT EXCURSlONlSTS WERE
RETURNING FROM
CANADA.
NEARLY THIRTY ARE INJURED
Baggage Car Telescopes Passenger
Coach, Crushing the Lives Out OF
Half a Carload of People-But..
Few Escaped Injury.

White River Junction, VT, Sept. 16.
--Twenty-four eXcursionists returning
from Canada met death and MANI otn-
ers were injured about daylight Sun
day in a fearful head-On collision on
the Concord division of the Boston d
Maine railroad, about four miles west
of Canada station. The badly In
iured numbered nearly thirty, some OF
whom, it is feared, may not recover.
At.noon twenty bodies had been taken
from the wreck.
A train of fOur cars, well filled with
tired. sleepy eXcursionists, nearly all
OF whom had been spending the day
a. the fair at S~herbrOOke, Que, just
over the Canadian border to the north,
had rounded a curve at a lively speed
when the headlight of a freight loco
motive flashed before the eyes OF the
engineer. In another instant there
was a crash, and both engines were
lying together, a mass of wreckage,
in the ditch beside the track, h bag
gage car next to the passenger loco
motive had been driven back into the
passenger coach, teleScoping it and
crushing the lives out of half a car
load of people. At the same time
nearly everyone else in that ca was
injured. But few escaped, but those
who were in the sleeping a in the
rear were saved from death by the
more sturdy qualities of the cal.
Occurred Just at Dawn.
The accident occurred at 4:24 a. M,
lust at dawn was showing in the east.
The moment after it happened train
hands who had escaped injury and
passengers in the sleeping car were
looking upon one of the worst wrecks
ever seen in New Hampshire. The
locomotives lay in a tangled pile. The
baggage car, partly derailed, was held
nearly upright by the wreckage of the
demolished day coach. one side of
which had been completely ripped,
while the remainder was ground to
splinters by the force Of the shock. A
smoker behind the day coach stood
on the rails with ends demolished and
windows broken. The sleeper was
practically unchanged. In the debris
of the passenger coach lay more dead
and injured than could be estimated
at the moment. At once those who
had escaped harm saw their task.
The cries and means of the injured
prompted speedy action. Out from
under broken beams and s~plintered
joists bleeding forms were dragged
and laid on broken backs of seats or
blankets from the sleeping car.
Wounds were hastily bound up with
torn sheets from the berths and such
other help as could be hastily pruvid-
ed was given. An hOur elapsed before
physicians could be brought from Han
over. White River Junction and Ca
naan. The dead were placed beside
the track to await more satisfactory
disposition.
Few Escaped Uniniured.
There were a comparatively few in
the crowd of rescuers who did not
show some wound from the disaster.
AS soOn as possible two Of the
trainmen who had escaped were sent
to Canaan for help, while others
sought nearby cottages and farm
houses for assistance. In the New
Hampshire mountains doctors are
few and an hour went by before the
arrival of the first physician.
Injured Are Sent to Hospitals.
A hospital train was dispatched from
here within a few minutes after news
of the accident was received, and by
z o'clock the first of the most serious
ly injured had reached here. Seven
were afterwards sent to Hanover to
avoid overcrowding the local hospital.
Soon after daylight a crowd from the
country side began to assemble and
by the middle of the forenoon the
curious ones numbered several hun
dred. During the forenoon the wreck
ing trains were sent from White
River Junction and Concord and put
to work and the track was cleared
early in the afternoon, although ten
OF the thirty freight cars which had
comprised the freight train wer. de-
rallied and the track was torn up for
a quarter of a mile. By noon the
work of rescue had been completed
and it became known that the number
of dead was "a. twenty-five of them
were taken by train to Concord and
two were sent to this place. Before
the removal fourteen had been identi-
fed.