The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-29
EIGHT HURTLED 10 DEATH IN
 HEAD-ON CRASH
Through Misunderstanding of Signals Locomotives
 Leap at Each Other Disaster One of Worst Rail road Wrecks in the His
 tory of Maine
Special from United Press.)

Bangor, Me, July 29-A misunder
 standing of signals by Engineer F. W | Garcelon, of the Bangor & Aroostool
 excursion train, is today's explanation l or the head-on crash of that train into
 train No. Il, from Van Buren to Ban. gor, shortly before midnight, las night, when eight were hurtled tc
 their death and 16 injured, some prob. ably fatally, at the backwoods station of Birthstone. about 65 miles north o1
 here. The dead, which include three
 trainmen and five passenkers, are:
 Harry Clark, Presque Isle; Dr. Hugh
 Phillips, Presque Isle; F. W. Garce1
 Ion, engineer on excursion train;
 Frank Seeley, son of the cashier of
 the Presque Isle National Bank; Claude Loomer, Washburn; Serne
 Harris, Presque Isle; Fireman Gal lagher, of excursion train; Fireman Brewer. Of Train No. II.
 The injured: Will Orr, engineer Van Buren local; J. R. Ellington, mail Brewster; D. Lowry, dentist, Presque Isle; Pearl Ginson, Presque Isle; Billy Duncan, Washburn; George Moves, bookkeeper, Presque Isle; Robert Welsh, Ted Soutbard, Claude Johnson. Ralph Hardy, Eldon Partridge, black smith, Fort Fairfield; Walter May hard. baseball player Fort Fairfield; Brakeman Knowles, Brewster; Bag gagemaster O. L. Champlin, Bangor: George Cilley, Waterville.
 The disaster was one of the worst railroad wrecl<s in the history of the State of Maine. Both trains were said to have been going at high rate of speed. The night was pitch dark and wild thunderstorm drown eo out any possible warning that the noise or either train might have given. The Washburn to Bangor train had Just started to slow down for a long curve south of the Penobscot River.
 Ofrlc1aIs of the road unofficiaIly | stated, today, that they cannot fully l ,xRaaan the accident. They said the 1T at Grindstone, that the excursion | rain had reached that point and was ust about to enter the siding when | he other train struck it. It is their 'eilef that the excursion train was ,ineer of Train No. II thought tha 'ther train had been safe in the sid ng for him. The engineer of tha eguar train, who is badly injured nd not expected to live, is said to ave regained consciousness long
 
 vas the correct explanation. II
 The excursion train carried 17Ol 'assengers and the regular about %. Many of these were in the sleep rs. They were thrown from their erths In scanty attire
 Most of the passengers in thel Tecked car were dead when found.
 The excursion train had barely left he curve and a small vfaduct over he river when the trains crashed. En- lneer Garcelon, an instant before theI reat locomotives 1eaped head on in- each other, threw off the lever, ap- lied the brakes and the next in tant was crushed to death as the en- ines hit, and, rearing for a moment lgh in the air, fell in a twisted heap steel and iron. The dead passen- CTS were riding in the car immediate back of the excursion trains ten- er. This coach was almost complete teiescoped by the coal car, it's oes projecting along the outside Of le tender to smoking engines and f ltching fire.
 Grindstone is a hamlet of only 4o 30 persons. All had heard the crash a Id before the fire demon had a chance d
 add to the horror. they had formed 4 bucket brigade from the nearby riv and extinguished the flames. a Believing that not a passenger in F e coach where all the dead were a und had chance to escape. the at U ntfon of the hardy men and women '
 the little backwoods camp turned to the cars in the rear F nere the cries Of the injured were U 'ard. The hands of the rescuers were O ugh and unskilled but they worked e gardless of fatigue, some with only U cir hands to tear windows and1 $ ards from the cars in which the in- e red were imprisoned. h Others, had run to their homes and b mps not far distant for axes. band ,es and such medicines as they kent a their homes. But even the best that n ese sturdy backwoodsmen could do a fered little comfort to several whose tl rts were so terrible they may sue B mb to them. TT AS far as could be learned today K collision occurred about Il o'clock. bs
 was nearly midnight before a re. li' f train, bearir~ doctors and nurses ei uld be rushed to the scene, and it sr IS nearly two hours more before relief train reached Grindstone. nt m were soon at the work digging in- eo the ruins of the demolished cars for te } dead and it is expected more bod dc
 will be found a ust what the real death list is can us now be stated. The officials of , road declared that the early re- m t of eight dead would not be in- lie ased put a wire received here by on mes O'Donohue from one of the phy- to lans at the scene, brought the in- qu nation that the list might reach 12 ed the list of injured go as high as $ soon as was possible the relief co in was started black to Bangor ad h both the dead and injured aboard. sa the former were taken to the mor- wa and the latter to the hospitals. lie athletic scenes were enacted at the ton when the funeral train pull fol into the local station. From Pres wi
 Isle, where three of the dead Iiv- of
 and from other points where live WI ltives of those on the train. hun as ds came to obtain some news of tht ad ones. fo1
 was learned from passengers who is
 escaped that the wreck occurred for
 than a hundred yards south of the ''fe obscot river bridge and that if tht
 trains had met minute sooner. COT l would have gone into the waters ed
 the death list would have run in- clu } score or more. for oston-According to today's figures knt e rain fell here, yesterday. than a ing any other one day in April. pol