The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1910-09-19
HEAD ON COLLISION FOLLOWS
h WITH NORTH BOUND N. & o.
Boz Crews Jumped but Men Of N. & 0. Train
We're Cauhgt Under Weeckage. En-
gines and Seven Cars Smashed--0per-
ator is acknowledgements
Inquest

Four men were killed and one in
jured In headon collision on the
Mobile & Ohio railroad one-half mile
south of Beech Ridge inside the Cairo
drainage district at $3.50 o'clock Sun
day morning. The wreck was one of
the worst that has happened In this
vicinity for many years. The follow
ing Is the list of killed and injured:
The Dead.
CLAUDE ROLLINS, engineer M. &
o., home at-~Jackson, Tenn.
JOHN CROSNOE, fireman NJ. & o,
home at Jackson, Tenn.
WESLEY II, STEVENSON, head
brakeman NJ. Il O., home at jackson.
Tenn.
An unknown negro stealing a ride
and supposed to have gotten on train
at Union City, Tenn.
The Injured.
f. A. BURGDORF, engineer st. l..
& /. NJ, home at St. Louis.
The dead are at the undertaking
establishment Of Mrs. NJ. L, Heith and
Engineer Burgdorf is at St. Mays
infirmary.
Drunken Operator.
The cause of the terrible disaster
is attributed to Operator Charles e.
Clark of 3215 Park avenue, Cairo, who
was sent TO Beech Ridge to relieve
Operator Albright yesterday morning
By all the evidence produced Clark
was asleep on his watch owing to
drunkenness, and did not place the
signal for the southbound /. M. extra
freight train to stop ON the siding to
await the M. e. O. freight.
Running Thirty Miles an Hour.
The trains that met In collision were
both freight trains. One was an M. g.
o. freight. First 332 Engine No. 32l,
nsrth bound. with 20 cars; and the
other train was an extra l. M. freight
with l3 cars. south bound. Both
trains were running at the rate of 25
to 80 miles an hour when they met.
They met on a perfectly straight
track, but owing to heavy cloud OF
fog that hung close to the ground
neither engineer could see the other
train until within 100 feet of each
other, and even then the headlights
were but sickly CLEANS Of light, and
the trains came together with an aw-
full crash that practically wrecked
both locomotives and smashed three
cars on the Iron Mountain and Ave
cars on the Mobile & Ohio, piling them
UP in tangled mass.
Both Crews Jumped
The crews on both locomotives
jumped their engines. Engineer Burg
dorf on the |. M. train put on the
brakes before he jumped, then leaped
out the cab window, alighting half
way down the embankment and sus-
tanned two bad sprains and Is at st.
Mary's infirmary. Fireman A. Hellger
Jumped out of the cab window, but
was not injured. Conductor Buckner
was In the cab OF the engine riding
there, as there was no caboose on his
train, having lost it and two cars at
Thebes at II o'clock Saturday night
in rear-end collision with train on
the Chicago & Eastern Illinois. He
jumped from the cab, but sustained
only d few bruises.
Caught Under Debris.
On the M. &c O. locomotive Engineer
Rollins, Fireman Crosnoe and Brake
man Stevenson all jumped from the
cab on sighting the l. M. headlight.
and all were killed instantly. The
impact of the collision threw car
load Of lumber upon them, burying
them beneath Its weight. The skulls
Of both Of these men were crushed,
and in the case OF Engineer Rollins
his body was also badly bruised. The
negro who was killed was riding the
tender Of the M. & O. at the time His
head was mashed. The brakes on the
M. & q. had not been applied,