Evening star., 1936-08-16
WARNING IGNORED
BY TRUCK DRIVER
Occupants of Two Cars
Shout "Don't Pass" as
22 Dash to Death.
B, the Associated Press.

b. the Associated Press
LOUISVILLE. Quebec, August IS.
A laundering freight train killed %
persons and injured IL others. OF
them seriously, at grade crossing here
today.
A large truck, loaded with 43 passen-
gers, rolled on to the open. unobstruct-
ed crossing in the path of the racing
locomotive.
Don't pass! Don't pass!" cried oc-
cupants of two other cars as the truck
whipped around them and approached
the tracks.
A split second later the train struck.
The truck splintered Bodies were
catapulted dozens Of feet on to the
right Of way, under the wheels Of the
freight train.
AS 1t knitted through the mass of
human forms. the locomotive applied
its brakes Brake shoes shrieked. A
handful of spectators sat transfixed.
Flung 80 feet and tossed into the ditch
beside the right of way, the truck
caught fire.
Flames Lick Wreckage.
Flames licked back from the engine
ever the wreckage. A half dozen Of
the seriously injured ones groaned as
rescuers, shaking off their paralysis,
tried to pull them from the tangle of
wood and steel.
TT Stin dorly yJt1oy, fhn
occurred-the occupants of the truck
were returning from a late political
meeting-and the flames lighted the
scene.
On a jutting piece of the chassis,
torn from the trucks framework, a
white and black hat hung grotesquely.
Along the track for hundreds of yards
were found bone and bits of flesh.
Apparently most of the dead had been
shot out of their shoes by the impact.
Footwear Uttered the right of way.
II Killed Outright.
Seventeen men and boys, some of
them only IA years old. were killed
outright. A dozen others were in
Jured. Five died. The rest. reactinp
1nst1nctively to the threat of danger
jumped to safety in the precious mo-
ments before the collision.
What chances for survival a half
dozen other persons in the truck had
tonight was a matter of conjecture
Doctors nursed their hurts in hospitals.
lmprovlsed morgues held the dead
covered with burlap sacks.
Two investigations were ordered
one by the Canadian Board of Rail-
way Commissioners, the other by the
quebec attorney generals department
Within an hour after the accident
three priests were administering last
rites to the injured, some of whom
were taken to hospitals here and some
to hospital in Three Rivers, 25 miles
away.
A garage served as one of the tenn
porary morgues.
Jumps to Safety.
A 17-year-old textile mill worker.
remand Tousignant, saved himself
by jumping. but he said he did not
know why he jumped. He did not
see the train until he picked himself
up in the roadside ditch.
T'oustgnant said no screams of hor-
ror or fear of momentary death were
heard before the train struck.
Emile Ferron, member of Parlia-
ment, said the truck was going about
40 or so miles an hour.
1T was horrible sight" he related
"Shrieks Of the injured and diving
mingled with the cries of relatives
who gathered on the scene, hamper
ing our efforts"
Just a few feet from the scene of
the crash sat other persons with Fer
ron waiting for the train to pass. He
said some in the cars which stopped
short of the crossing shouted to the
drlver OF the truck, Edmund Houle,
to stop.