The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-16
SEVEN ARE KILLED
 IN OMAHA WRECK Missouri Pacific Passenger Collides With Freight CREW FORGOT ORDERS Freight Crew Suffers Strange Lapse of Memory-Governor Gilchrist
 Was a Passenger But Is
 Uninjured
CREW FORGOT ORDERS

Omaha, Neb., october 15.-Seven persons were killed and 22 were in-
 jured, four of them seriously, in col
 1ision between Missouri Pacific train
 No. 1O5, northbound, and a fast freight at Fort Crook at 1 o'clock this morn-
 ing, three miles south of this city. The accident is believed to have resulted
 from a misunderstanding of orders by the freight crew. A relief train was sent to the scene at once. Shortly before noon the relief train reached this city with the injured and several of those who were slightly hurt. Governor Gilchrift of Florida was Q passenger on the northbound train, but
 was uninjured
 The dead:
 Miss Frances Lillian Kronka, Wash ington. D. c.
 F. w. Pouring, merchant, Nebraska City, Neb.
 o. w. Keeler, passenger brakeman,
 Mrs. Fred Rowttmann, Nebraska City. Neb.
 Wisterfan Rowttmann, years old, daughter of Mrs. Rowttmann.
 A. w. Sprague, electrician, St. Jo- seph, Mo.
 Undermined negro WOnlan
 Seriously injured Include Fred Rowlt- mann, banker, Nebraska City, whose
 wife is among the killed, and John Scott, passenger engineer. They may die. Less seriously injured include two
 railway mall clerks and a firemen. Most of them are from cities in Kansas and Nebraska.
 Where the collision occurred there is a snarp curve. It was at this point ( ar{p xufa of ba raI IOh train. caught sight of No. 1o5, which
 was coming at high speed. He whistled and slackened speed. When the pas
 senger did not answer he concluded that it was a train on the adjoining
 Burlington tracks. When within few car lengths of each other both en-
 gineers realized the danger and re- versed their engines. The momentum. of the passenger, however, was so great that in moment it was piled
 high upon the freight engine, which had almost stopped. The crews of both engines jumped
 The impact telescoped the mail cars and the passenger coach in which about 40 persons were riding. The coach was a mass of wreckage at the forward
 end and the dead and dying were
 caught in every position. John Scott, engineer of the passenger, declared that he heard no whistle from the freight. Engineern Crawford, of the freight train, blamed Gross. his conductor, for the wreck. He said he had not received any orders concern ing the on-coming passenger train. St. Louis, October 15.-The accident can only be attributed to the fallibility of man, as the freight train crew seems to have had one of those mental lapses which sometimes occur, causing them to forget all about the passenger train,
 notwithstanding special notifica tion was given them that 1t was due. is the explanation of the probable cause of morning, as advanced by President B.
 F. Bush of the Missouri Pacific. The freight train was in charge of Conductor Gross and Engineer Craw- ford.
 There is train register maintained at South Omaha, said President Bush. Tt is the rule that train crews must check those registers. Not only did the crew have access to this register, but Train Dispatcher Lane at South Omaha handed Conductor Gross, as an extraordinary precaution, message | reading: No. 105, with no signals, reaches Gilmore Junction at $50 a. m For some unaccountable reason these men apparently forgot all about pas senger train No. 105. All the freight train crew had to do was to wait at
 the junction until after the passenger train passed. Only single track is
 maintained where the trains came to- gether."