Evening star., 1947-01-17
IAt Least Seven Killed
AS Train in California
Jumps Broken Rail
Hospital Reports IS
Or More Hurt in Wreck
Near Bakersfield
BY the Associated Press

BAKERSFIELD, Calf, Jan
l7.-Seven persons were known
to have been killed, Coroner Nor
man Houze said today, and many
others were injured when the
Owl, Southern Pacific passenger
train, struck a broken rail l:
miles northwest of here early to.
day. One or two more might
have died in the wreck, he added
Deputy Coroner John Werts, ais,
at the wreck scene, said three Of tn,
known dead are women. Some of tn
bodies removed from the wreckag
were mangled, making determine
ton of the exact number kille'
difficult.
Kern County General Hospital
where most of the injured wer
being treated, estimated them a
rs to 100, including those less seri
ously hurt.
The dead included these, tenta.
lively identified:
James Leroy Hall, Kansas City
Mo-; Bessie Diles and Pvt. JOSEPH
Bernavich, both of Richmond, Calf
. Hurled Through Windows.
Sheriff's Deputy Jack Kiethley, the
first officer to return from the scene
said an uncounted number of pas.
sengers were hurled through train
windows and crushed beneath the
weight of four coaches and tour
iSt sleeper, which were derailed and
overturned when the train south
bound from San Francisco to Los
Angeles hit a broken rail.
The deputy reported that the
wreckage was ghastly scene and
that legs and arms were torn from
some Of the victims.
'"The halls are full of injured and
we are working on them desper-
ately," said an attendant at the
Kern County Hospital. One of the
injured was youngster whose leg
was severed.
Ambulance crews, sheriff's dep
uties and others worked feverishly
to extricate the injured and rush
them to hospitals.
Six Ambulances Sent.
A Southern Pacific dispatcher
said the train, which left San Fran
cisco at $50 o'clock last night an6
was due in Los Angeles at 8:25 this
morning, usually travelled at &C
miles an hour along the stretch
where the wreck occurred.
Sergt. L. E. Pryor of the sheriff s
Office at Bakersfield said six ambu-
lances had been sent to the scene
at Lerdo, a small railway station
near Minter Field, wartime training
field for aviation cadets.
The engineer, H. P. Lawrence, and
the conductor, George Cochrane of
Los Angeles, were unhurt as the
locomotive and three baggage cars
behind 1t were not derailed. Seven
passenger cars Of the 15-car train
remained upright.
Southern Pacific officials said the
train carried approximately 200
passengers.
State Highway Patrolman Jack
Bordeau said two soldiers on the
train, Marvin Stansberry, of Moul-
ton, Iowa, and Orvis Humphrey of
Kidder, Mo-, rescued many persons
from overturned cars by stamping
out windows and lifting out the in
jured.
Car Rolls Into Potato Field.
Lester Ford, porter on one of the
overturned coaches, said most of the
injured were in one of the coaches
which left it's truck and hurtled into
a potato field.
II heard a roaring and grinding
as the car I was in started rolling
up track in front of it," he added.
The car rolled about 800 feet into
the potato field before 1t turned
over, he said. The passengers
seemed dazed, the porter added, as
they wandered about the scene.
There was little panic, but he heard
screams Of some OF the injured.
A reporter who visited the wreck
said the rails looked like spaghet-
ii" where they had been rolled up,
and shoes of passengers were strewn
along the road bed.