Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-22
IS ARE KILLED
IN IOWA WRECK
TOLL OF DEATH IN STRANGE
DISASTER APPALLING
PASSENGERS IN ALL BUT THREE
COACHES ESCAPE
Engines Running Backward at High
Speed Said to Have Been
Wrecked by Spreading
Rails
Continued from Page nnel

/ locomotive rolled over, and the sudden
/ stop hurled all the rear cars forward.
A coach, a smoker and a Pullman
car were smashed to splinters, almost
all the occupants being killed or in
jured
The superstructure of the Pullman
was literally shaved off and was
! jammod like a ramrod through the
smoker and day coach.
Bodies Fearfully Mangled
Many passengers We're killed outright.
! Heads were severed from bodies, and
arms and legs were cut Off The
Wreckage was crimson with blood, some
of the bodies being crushed beyond
recognition in the mass of twisted rails
and splintered cars.
a lew of the passengers were found
still living, with a rod or splinter I'M
paling them in the wreck. Decapitated
bodies were picked up, and II was al
most impossible to assort correctly the
dismembered parts.
The wreck occurred at a point diff
1 ficult of access. Such bodies as could
be pulled out were stretched out in
an adjoining pasture.
First attention was given to the
wounded. Fortunately, the wreckage
did not take fire.
L ilE AtSNut BeAA ~ ASlAlAOl1N lhbNA pAA
/ by wrecking trains carrying nurses
and surgeons, sent from the nearest
available points, worked all day and
until long after dark. The injured were
rushed to a hospital, several of them
dying on the way. Two of the bodies
were not taken out until night.
Thirteen Cars in Train
An explanation given by the rail-
road was that the train was being de
/ toured on account of a blockade due
TO a freight wreck at Shellsburg, Ia.
4 The section from st. Louis, which left
st. Louis at 2:15 p. m. Sunday. and
the section from Chicago, which left
at Ais p m. Sunday. had been cam
celed at Cedar Rapids.
Fatalities occurred only in the trst
three coaches The rear coaches all
remained on the track.
Surgeon Fatally Hurt
The train consisted of thirteen cars.
The Pullman car from st. Louis was
! leading the train next to engine No.
1909. Then came a smoker and a day
coach in which there were many wom-
en- and children.
About four and n half miles beyond
! Green Mountain at the top of a hill is
a cut about twelve feet deep 1t was
! in this that the tender on the leading
engine suddenly jumped the track.
/ This threw the head engine into the
| side of the cut. The clay of the cut
was soft and the engine went into it,
stopping instantly. The sudden stop
! ditched the second locomotive and the
heavy train crushed the day coach and
smoker upon the Pullman. The smOk-
er and day coach were instantly tele-
scoped and hardly an occupant of
either car escaped death or injury.
Ia, 1or arafs s,f4 4lao fpa in
remained on the track the shock sent
the passengers sprawling from their
seats to the floor.
! Conductor William Worst was first
| to grasp the situation. He sent train
men to flag train No 491, bound for
Sioux City, While others were hurried
to GladbroOlS and Green Mountain.
The uninjured passengers then be-
gan to remove the dead and injured.
The dead were taken to an adjoining
pasture and laid on the grass.
! 1t was two hours before a relief
train from Marshalltown, carrying sur
geons and Coroner Z. W. jay, arrived,
The dead, in many cases, We're
crushed beyond recognition. Heads
I were severed from bodies; arms and
/ legs were cut off.
Coroner Jay, himself a surgeon, was
| Fastening in a Red Cross ambulance
to "A hospital in Marshalltown when he
! was thrown to the pavement as the
! ambulance rounded a corner. He was
! picked up unconscious. 1t is believed
! that his back is broken and that he
! cannot live.
! St. Thomas hospital in Marshalltown
was soon filed and other rooms were
/ pressed into service. The removal of
| bodies showed the worst injuries were
/ among the passengers in the day coach
/ and in the smoker, and it is believed
| that but two of the dead were in the
/ Pullman.
It was thought the bodies of all the
victims had been removed from the
4 Wreckage before nightfall, but late to-
night two other bodies were found in
/ the debris.
BY morning it is expected the track
will be cleared and train service re-
newed.
Prof L. w. Parrish Of Cedar Falls,
| teacher in economies at the State
| Teachers college, was one of the first
to be taken from the ruins. He was
mortally wounded and was rushed to
the hospital, but died in the am
: bulance.
Injured Physicians Aid Victims
DR.. J. w. Devrey of Chicago and DIR.
Dunham of Sioux Falls, S. D., were
physicians on the train. Although in
jured themselves, they worked hard to
succor others.
James Mcnamara, assistant head
clerk of the Modern Woodmen Of
America, at Rock Island, was in the
smoker He escaped without injury.
/. 2. Clark, conductor on the Pullman
car. was in an upper berth, but aside
from a few bruises was uninjured.
c. w Moier of Walla Walla, Wash,
was in a lower berth in one of the
Pullmans near the rear of the train.
Il did not realize it was a wreck" ,"
said he II bounded as though
man had thrown a brick on the floor.
The car ! was in was well back. In
front Of it were the mail and baggage
cars Ahead of these were the smoker
and Pullman. I looked out and saw
the engine overturned before 1 real
lied it.
u saw some terrible things. One
man had been driven head first into a
window. The glass was broken and
was cutting him where his head rested
on the sill, and under all that awful
weight above he screamed and cried
for someone to kill him I found a
stick and broke the glass under his
cheek where it lay on the sill and the
mans lower jaw fell to the ground at
my feet
There was an old man running
about pleading for us to rescue his
son. lie was badly hurt himself. The
son was cut entirely in two"
Miss May Hoffman of Waterloo, one
of the dead, was one Of a party start |
ing out on a pleasure trip. Some |
months ago she took third prize in a
national beauty contest conducted by |