The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1918-09-11
THREE KILLED
IN WRECK NEAR
BRATTLEB0RO'
Rear-End Collision on Boston
and Maine.
TRAIN TELESCOPES CAR
Clerk Platt Of United States Court
One Of Dead-Engineer Claims
He Had Clear Signal.
TRAIN TELESCOPES CAR

Brattleboro, Sept 11-Threc per-
sons were instantly killed and 30 in
jured, several seriously when south
bound freight train on the Boston and
Maine railroad plunged into the rear
or passenger train SO at the Sand Hill
curve, a half-mile south OF Dummer-
ston, and five miles north OF Brattle
bOro, about 2 O'Clock yesterday after
noon.
The dead are. Frederick S. platt,
clerk of United States court at Rut.
land William J. Conant of Bellows
Falls; Richard King of Boston, tra7el-
ing salesman for Dodge-Haley COM
pany, Boston, hardware dealers
The injured re:-Mr5. Roy Hart
of Bellows Falls, seriously injured;
Inez Bracey of Charteagay Lake. r, T.,
seriously injured; Mrs. +. W. riilner
of Grafton, seriously injured: Clarence
Whiteback Of Northampton, railroad
postal clerk, teeth dislocated and lips
cut, hurt about andle; Mrs Nahum
Turner of Norwich; William oandberg
of Worcester, cut orer forehead, in5ur-
ed knee and wrist; Mrs. Minnie
f ~ VI lCI VI W hiAtiCilii7iNWh, otlb lily
/ jured; Joseph O'Brien OF Williams
Htown, slightly injured; Waldo j. Was
kewies of LUDLOW. les seriously injLg-
I ed; Mrs c. J. buchanan III Holy0ke.
| slightly injured; Mrs. Isaac Fish OF
Castleton, slight injuries; George
/ Mabb, telegraph operator, of Spring
/ field, seriously hurt, Bertrand CG.llon'
! of East Deeri siG. seriously Injured;
w. r. Webb, engineer, Of 5 D:ing-
field, hurt in back causcl hy jumping
from train Mrs. William NaItrcss OF
( Westminster slightly hurt; Anna May
Farmer of itlth'a, Ga, Seri0usl; in
/ jured on head; Amos Carpenter of
! Stockt CAL lawyer, seriously ininr
ed; Mrs. Lillian Atwaod of Chester.
slightly injured; T. 5 Grady Of Burl
ington si'Shllv injured
The -oE.h-bound passenger train.
known us NJ So tonnd from Ntw
port, W, - Springfield, pulled Oil 70
the D-iGllelsUn siding FIR the IIr-
pose of ailow.hy Nc IS, tile White
Mountain express, To pass The
White MOGlfain IRA u passed after
which No. " pulled slowly frnm he
Iside track on to the main line.
Almost as 500 mas So left the switch
an extra freight train, hnOwn Pc NO.
6, crashed into the rear erd going at
high speed. The engine ploweh its
way pa. through the rear coach
drove Itself halfway through the
smOki = ~ Wh't1 .qS the third
from the rear. where mnst of the
damage was dnrA A peculiar feature
of the wreck was that ionc II the
wheels left the rails.
The passenger locomotive which
was uninjurh came 10 Brattleboro
ana returned with four physicians and
two nurses and the Fad and wounded
were brought back to Brart.cborO in
two coaches whlch We're run up from
BrattlebOro.
The scene of The week was at one
: of the blindest curves on tho whole
, division and has been a source of ap-
:. prohension for long time. A more
perfect case of telescoping would have
: been impossible, as one passenger car
), was driven more than half way
!, through the other The wonder is
that a single person escaped death
but a woman with her two small
: children were seen to crawl from un
y derneath the worst of the wreckagt
y. wholly uninjnred.
- Both Engineer Webb and Fireman
= Coghlin seeing the impending danger
y jumped. Had Mr. Webb stuck TO his
I. post the indications were tnat h,
would have escaped injury.
= One explanation OF the cause Of Nh,
"a wreck is that the express waited oI
the siding until the block was cleared
u after the White mountain express
passed, then before 1t reached tn
=. ~ main line to throw the block, tn,
y freight had passed Dummerston sta
~ tion with clear signal and rushed ol
y sintil to the rear end OF the exrres
IL suddenly showed around the curve
just making the main line. Enginee
Webb claims he was shown n clea
block at Dummerston station
Clerk Platt, who was killed, was u
an his way to prattleboro to hold ses
3 sion OF the United States court fo
er the purpose of naturalization. Hi
sr; Offices at the federal building wer
ar filed with men waiting TO take on
or papers of citizenship. together with
large number of witnesses, many {
WHOM from outside the state whe
=, word was brought to the court rooi
90 of Mr. Platts death. Mr.. Plat hs
been clerk of the court about 10 year
30 and was very well known througho,
20 the state He leaves. beside the wi
ow in Rutland one son, George in q
United States navy and one son
'6S Wilder; another son died FIVE yea
lS6 ago as a result of accidental shoe
l59l ing while hunting The body will
81 taken to Rutland today, accomp
so MED by United States Marshal Arth
A. Carpenter, who was the first to ide
r,v tify It as It lay beside the railroi
tracks near the scene OF the acoidei
so@ The insurable uninsured