The Washington herald., 1921-02-28
Wooden Coaches Crushed
Into KindIing on Cross
ing at Porter, Ind. &
HUNDRED INJURED,
RESCUERS ESTIMATE
Scores Pinned in Debris
Are Burned; Signals
Reported Ignored.

PORTER, Ind, Feb. 27.-Between
forty. and nifty people were killed
and many others injured in a wreck
Of two passenger trains in this city
at 6:2e o'clock tonight Ohicials OF
the Michigan Central Railway ad-
init that forty persons have been
killed.
SiNuees bodies haa Ueen taken
from the wreck at S.4s tonight.
Two were identified as Claude y.
johnson, OF Elkhart, Ind. engineer.
and Mrs. Kramer. of Michigan City.
a passenger on the Michigan Cen
tral.
Rescuers estimate the dead at
Fifty and the injured at a hundred
Both the engineer and fireman OF
the Michigan CeBtral train escaped
Hu.dreSs o. Train.
Michigan Central Train No. Ise.
one Of the Inflated trains. left Chi
cago at 5 o'clock this evening. II
carried several hundred passengers
from Chicago and Western points.
Rescuers digging into the tangled
debris say many Of the bodies are
so badly mangled and dishgured
that Identification will be difficult.
The known dead are:
Clauson johnson. engineer Of the
New York Central train.
Mrs Barney Kramer wife Of n
Michigan City wholesale grocer.
- Rosenwald. high school teach
er, of Michigan City.
Peck. reported TO have been a
salesman for Marshall Field aud
Company.
Cars Are De-eltskea.
New York Central train No. i5i,
New York to Chicago. travelling at =
great rate Of speed. cut into the
middle OF a Michigan Central train
bound from Chicago to New York.
The tracks cross at this point Both
engines turned over, deraiiing fhe
coaches. The wooden coaches were
crushed into kindling wood at the
bottom of the steep embankment.
Scores Of passengers. pinned in
the wreckage of the coaches. were
burned by the FIRE which broke cut
Immediately, but was later eN-
ItinCuished by the volunteer FIRE de-
partment of the village.
The all steel Pullmans were also
badly smashed and imprisoned
many Of the injured. At the mo-
ment OF the crash the dining cars
Of each train were crowded and
hardly a passenger in three coaches
escsp ped without severe injuries.
Twelve cars were wholly or par
TALLY demolished
Relief Train. sent Out.
An hour after the wreck eight
bodies had been taken from the de-
I bris and the injured were rushed
TO Chesterton, Ind, in automobiles
and motor trucks. Relief trains
were rushed out from Chicago. Gary
and La Porte. Ind. The surgeons
and. nurses OF the Illinois steel Com
pany at Gary were rushed aboard
the Lake Shore relief trains with
full emergency equipment. Ambu-
lances were hastily sent to Gary md
La Porte 20 await the arrival of the
relief trains
According to first information the
engineer on the Michigan Central
train ran past two red signals which
had been set TO give the Lake shore
train the right OF way.
Circus wreck Fatal to 70.
Several years ago an engineer On
the Michigan Central passed the
warning signals and drove a dead
head equipment train through the
caboose and five wooden coaches Of
the Hagenbeck Wallace circus
train, killing more than eighty per-
formers and workmen.
This wreck occurred ten miles
west of the crossing at Porter, the
scene Of tonight's wreck.