The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1910-09-23
DISREGARD OF.
ORDERS ALLEGED
Cause of Horrible Wreck
on Indiana Road.
TWO SCORE PEOPLE DEAD

Of the Fifty Persons on Board the
Two Cars in Collision Only One Man
Is Said to Have Escaped Without
Injl~'y-Bodies of Victims So Ter
ribIy MansIed That Identification
Was Difficult.
Fort Wayne, Ind, Sept, 23.-The au-
thorities of Wells county and officials
of the Traction company are making
a rigid investigation to attach respon-
sibility for the collision of two cars
on the Bluffton line of the Fort Wayne
and Wabash Valley Traction company,
in which forty persons were killed and
eight injured.
Frank l. Hardy, superintendent of
transportation of the Traction CON-
pany, stated that disregard of orders
caused the wreck and that B. T. Cork
we'll, motorman of the southbound
train, probably is the one to blame:
The disaster, rated as the worst in
all interurban history, occurred at a
sharp curve near Kingland, six miles
from Bluffton.
The line is operated under a block
system and until the railway makes
public the orders issued the crews it
mOtOrman was negligent.
The southbound car, the one going
to Bluffton, was manned by Conductor
Del Wilson of Ossian and Motorman
B. T. COrkwell of Fort Wayne.
The northbound car, which was
crowded to the steps with sightseers:
was in charge of Conductor E. A. Spill,
Ter and Motorman Charles Van Dyne,
both of Button. The four trainmen
will probably recover.
Said to Have Disobeyed Orders.
It is said that Corkwell was to wait
at Greensboro, station between
Kingsland and Ossian, for the north
bound train, but that instead of doing
this he tried to meet the other car at
Kingsland.
The crash came soon after the
northbound car had left Kingsland.
The cars were telescoped almost their
entire length.
Practically all of the dead persons
we're living in the vicinity of Bluffton.
1t was a holiday throng bound for
Fort Wayne to attend the state fair.
The local" was filled to the last seat
and there were many persons in the
aisles or on the platforms.
Out of forty-6ve or fifty persons,
passengers and trainmen, but one man
has so far been discovered who es-
capped entirely unhurt.
Most of the deaths were instan-
taneOus.
The spot where the wreck occurred
is isolated and it was an hour and a
half after the collision that physi-
clans arrived from Bluffton and Fort
Wayne and that actual relief work
began.
Bodies Horribly ManeIed.
The dead were laid in rows in a
grove nearby. The bodies were hor-
ribly mangled. Legs and arms were
severed and in some cases heads near.
ly cut from the body.
The relatives of the dead, arriving
at the grove, were hysterical, making
the work of the doctors doubly diff.
cult.
The Identification was slow. The
dead were loaded into two cars and
taken to Bluffton, the wounded to
Fort Wayne.
Conductor Spiller of the Bluffton
local was not seriously injured and
his presence of mind averted another
accident. When Spiller saw the ex-
tent of the catastrophe he ran back
toward Kingsland and tagged and
stopped the Indianapolis limited
which was coming full speed. Had
it not been stopped it would have
crashed into the struggling and dy.
ing mass of humanity left in the
wake of the crash.
John R. Boyd of Marion, Ind, was
probably the only passenger aboard
the i'll fated local car who escanoH