The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-17
TWENTY-ONE KILLED
tCoatiaued from rawe oneD

been tied up by the derailment of some freight cars, The first relief train bearing a number of the more serious ly injured reached Glenwood this morn ing bringing reports of the wreck which appears to have been one of the worst in the history of railroading.
 Most of the slaughter was done in the chair car. Of sixty-nine passen- gers In that coach, sixty -eight are said to have been killed. The only person to escape was a 6-year-old girl who was found under the dead body of her mother, and who was too near dead to even say her name. farther than that 1t is Alice" Further identifications of the dead have been made according to reports reching Glenwood Springs. The dead are in many instances so hor- ribIy mutiiated that Identification will be very dificult.
 Cause of wreck.
 According to information received here. the wreck was caused by the failure of Engineer Gus Olson, of the passenger train. to correctly read the time indicated by his watch. When nearing Detsero, olson looked at his watch and read the time to be 9:45 p. m. It was then $50.
 Thinking he had plenty of time to make the next siding below Dotsero, he pulled the throttle of his engine wide open and was making forty-fiye miles an hour on the down grade when he collided with the freight which was laboriously climbing up the hill, under q full head of steam of two big en- siness.
 When the engineer did not stop at Dotsero. Conductor Edward McCurdy jumped to the bell cord and signalled to the engineer to stop the train. but 1t was then too late to avoid the disas- ter and the two trains crashed together with an awful roar and terrible impact. The three big engines telescoped. The combination baggage and express car, the smoker and the day coach also tel escoped, while three heavy Pullman sleepers and a diner crushed them into mass against the engine.
 Every person except one in the chair car was killed. Eight of the passen- gers were .ecapitated as though by a guillotine their heads rolling from their bodies. The only person to escape In the chair car was Alice Williams. 6 years old, from some point in Iowa. She was found under he'd dead mother, slightly bruised and covered from head to foot with blood. The child was taken to Glenwood Springs on the sec ond relief train.
 The only member of the train crew injured was John Anderson, who Tn Jumping sprained hls ankle. EnBineef Gus Olso of the passenger train. is brother of Sig olson who was in charge of the head engine on the freight train. Harry Jeffreys was the engineer on the second engine. Both Sig Olson and Jeffreys live at Glen wood Springs. The wreckage caught fire immediately after the collision and a holacause was averted by those pas sengers who were not killed or seri- ously injured and members of the train crews who used shovels and put out the blaze with snow which was piled in huge banks along the tracks.
 Mai1 Clerks Escape.
 It was at first supposed that the two mail clerks, Hammond and Frazee, on No. 5, we're killed. but 1t later devel- oped that it Is the custom to cut out the mail car at Pueblo and send It on by No. an hour and half later so as not to delay the through train by stopping to load the heavy mail that they generally pick up at Pueblo.