The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-01-16
DEAD II.
/, Injured so, Thirty OF Them
Probably Fatally.
Two Trains in Collision on the
Denver & Rio Grande.
ALL DEAD BUT ONE.
Out of 90 Passengers Occupy
ing the Day Coach.
All of the Sleepers Remained on
the Track.
THEIR HEADS CUT OFF
Several Persons Decapitated as
by a GuillOtine.
Engineer MiSread the Time by
His Watch.
Engineer Misread the Time by
His Watch.

dead, 80 injured ana at IedSI oV VI
whom will probably die is the record
of the wreck of Denver & Rio Grande
passenger train No. 5, near Dotsero,
25 miles from Glenwood Springs, ac-
cording to a long distance telephone
message from Glenwood Springs this
A morning
Dead:
GUS OLSEN, engineer on the pas
senger train, Salida.
Seventy passengers, names unknown.
Known Injured:
John Rosso, laborer. Cleveland, o.
Thomas Elliott. Pendleton, Ia.
w. Adair, Ravenna, o.
T. B. Miller, Denver.
Mrs. G. Blanke, Wapolin.
Charles P. Nance.
Mrs. Charles P. Nance.
w. NJ Barber, Anthony Kan.
J. B. Hayden and child, Buffalo,
Okla
Fred Jensen, Iowa Falls Ia.
Mrs Nellie J. Morton, Standish, Cal
Mrs. A. NJ. McCauley and child.
w G. Moxey, Los Angeles.
J. B. Thompson, Bookens, S. D.
F. Chandler, Denver.
Clyde E. McCown, Pullman con-
ductor.
Clarence NASSAU, MiddIeburg. VT
d. E. Cannon, Twin Falls. Idaho.
Among those who were on the train
and escaped are:
Emma Strafford, Cleveland, o.
Mary Z. Spear. Cleveland, o.
Mortie Spear, Cleveland, o.
E. L. Rolf. Winside Neb.
Hugg Gregg and family, Harris
burg, III.
All of the sleeping cars remained
on the track and no one in them was
injured.
The passenger train crashed into
the head engine of the freight train
gong across a switch at Dotsero,
which is blind siding. The chair car
was telescoped and the first passenger
chair car that the dead were taken.
Twenty bodies have been recovered. 1t
Is said that not single person in the
day coach escaped.
Meagre details have been received
there. The relief train will probably
reach here with the dead sometime
this morning.
1t was impossible to carry the
wounded around the wreck This de-
1ayed the relief to the passengers for
more than an hour.
Going Too Fast to Stop.
The passenger train is said to have
been going at a good rate of speed
when it reached the siding at Dotsero.
1t is supposed that the engineer of the
passenger thought that the freight
had passed to the siding and was go
he saw the danger.
The great locomotive attached to
the passenger train was demolished
and the chair car and passenger coach
were turned on their sides and shat
tered
With the arrival of the relief train
from Glenwood it was possible to start
the work of taking out the bodies
The injured were pinned under the
wreckage and the heroic work of the
Z passengers of the rear cars saved
Nnany lives. Some of the injured are
terribly mangled and the death list it
is feared will be greatly increased
Train No. 5, which was wrecked
left Denver yesterday morning and
was due here at 1920. The train was
we'll filled with passengers MANY of
whom were to get off at this point.
Dotsero is a blind siding with no
station and no telegraph office
When the relief train reached the
scene it was found that the long string
of freight cars on the freight train
were in the way and the only wav
they could be disposed of was to back
them to Shoshone. eight miles from
the wreck.
The physicians and nurses however.
left the relief train as soon as they
reached there and ministered as best
they could to the dead and diving
special train with Amos c. Ridge
way. general manager of the Denver
& Rio Grande and other Denver Off
cials of the road on board left Denver
at midnight last night for the scene of
the wreck. The special will be given
right of way over the Colorado Mid
land and the Denver & Rio Grande
and will make a record run to Dot
SerO-
Relief Train Tied Up.
To add to the horror of the wreck.
the second relief train, on its wav TO
CIenwood, loaded with injured, has
been tied up by the derailment of some
freight cars. The first relief train
bearing number of the more Slightly
injured reached Glenwood this morn
ing, bringing reports of the wreck
which appears to have been one of the
worst in the history of raiIroadfng
No further identihcations of the dead
have been made, according to renOrts
reaching GIenwood. The dead are in
many instances so horribly mutiIated
that Identification will be very dim
cult.
Cause of the Wreck.
According to information received
the wreck was caused by the failure
of Engineer Gus Olsen of the passenger
train to correctly read the time in5i-
Gated by his watch. When nearinp
Dotsero, Olsen looked at his watch and
read the time to be 9:45 D. m. 1t was