Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1910-01-29
PASSENGER TRAIN ON c. P. R.
DERAILED ON BRIDGE.
Rescued Passengers Tell of Agony of
Victims in Wreck on Canadian Pa
cifc Railroad-Divers Work With
Disadvantage of Ice and Cold-50
Are Dead-30 Injured.

big drayloads of rough boxes waiting
to receive the bodies of about two
score victims the scene of yesterday Is
Canadian Pacific wreck at Spanish
river presented an almost hopeless field
for labor for the hundred or more men
sent to clear away the debris and re-
cover the victims bodies. A storm
ragged all day.
Two of the wrecked cars drifted
under the bridge and were completely
submerged. The dining car remained
partly on the river bank and partly sub
merged.
Little remained of the second-class
coach which was split in two when it
struck the bridge girder and took fire.
Ice has closed over the frst-class
coach and the colonist car and it is
impossible to determine their exact
location.
More than 80 injured were taken to
the general hospital and the hotels of
Sudbury.
The engine, combination mail and
baggage car and express car had
passed safely over the bridge when the
forward trucks of the second-class
coach jumped the track. The car
struck an immense steel girder with
such terrific force as to snap the beam
in two and split the car as with a
cleaver. The rear of the second-class
coach swerved to one side, pulling the
colonist car, frst-class coach and
diner off the bridge into the river and
tipping over the Pullman beside the
track. Fire added to the horror of
the accident.
Fed survivors are In condition to
give accurate details of the accident.
Survivors of the catastrophe who
have reached here express the belief
that at least rs persons lost their
lives. Owing to the circumstances sur
rounding the wreck it will be several
days before the full extent of the dis
aster will be known.
Divers Chop Into Ice.
Divers descended through the crust
of ice on the Spanish river into some
of the submerged cars. Hardy sub
marine workers could remain IN the
frigid waters but few moments. Their
uncovered hands were almost frozen
as they were hauled to the surface.
Working in relays in the glare of bon
fires built at either end of the bridge,
they chopped their way into the cars
in an effort to recover the CHASTITY
freight.
Wrecking crews are making futile
efforts to fasten chains about the cars
to hoist them from the bed of the
frozen stream. So fearful is the cold
and so great is the hardship faced by
the workers that progress is cruelty
slow.
The divers have succeeded in reach
ing the smoking compartment of the
first-class coach and bringing to the
surface four bodies of travelling men
who were playing cards at the time of
the disaster. They were frozen stiff
in great block of ice when sent to
the surface and had scarcely moved
from their playing positions.
At the scene of the wreck a raging
blizzard was wreaking it's fury upon
the gangs of wreckers who were work
ing in the teeth of bitter and blind
ing snow.
For three hours one man hung by
his hands to the transom of the coach,
breathing what little air remained at
the roof of the car, while his body was
submerged in the water.
Robert Burroughs, manager of the
Bell Telephone company at Sault Ste.
Marie, a passenger in the Pullman car,
which did not go into the river, said:
Screams of the Victims.
"When the Pullman went down that
embankment and turned over 1 was
thrown in a corner, stunned and
bruised and covered with debris. All
around us 1 could hear the screams of
women and children in the burning
half of the second-class car. They
were all consumed by flames"
Burroughs declared he had to force
his way through the debris in order to
get out of the car.
al found woman on the floor lying
pinned under the seat" he continued.
"She tried to rise, but could not and
asked me to look for her husband. I
made her as comfortable as L could
and finally found her husband dead.
When 1 returned to tell her she was
dead, too, her spine having been
broken.
"When we began removing the in
jured little boy wrapped in a blanket
was handed up to me to pass along
the line of rescuers. AS took him
the wind blew the blanket aside and he
was so horribly crushed that it was
hard to believe he was human. I said,
Are you all right, little boyf' and he
answered cheerfully, Eyes, I'm feeling
fine; but my mother is down there in
the wafer
81 saw one man make his way from
the colonist car to the bridge, appar-
emily unhurt. He endeavored to walk
little farther on, but fell from the
bridge and was drowned.