Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1910 — 19 KILLED, 20 INJURED IN BIG FOUR ROAD WRECK [ARTICLE]

19 KILLED, 20 INJURED IN BIG FOUR ROAD WRECK

Section of Twentieth Century Limited Collides With Freight Through Misunderstanding of Orders. Middletown, 0., July 5. —The “Big Four” Twentieth Century Limited, east-bound with 200 passengers, was wrecked in a head-on collision with a Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton freight train one-half mile south of here, nineteen people being killed outright and moferthan a score injured. The two trains met and the locomotive of the freight plowed its way through four coaches of the fast passenger train. The “Big Four” train was running ten minutes late and was using the tracks of the C., H. & D. to get around a small wreck which occurred earlier in the day at Sharon, O. Through an error in the interpretation of its orders the freight train met the passenger before it had taken the sidetrack. The collision took place on a sharp curve, and cars were piled up in the ditch. r / When the engines crashed one of the steel monsters crushed through the combination baggage and smoking car and a day coach which was largely filled with women and children. It was some minutes before a move at rescue work could be started, as the crews as well as passengers were tossed about. When those still able reached the upturned cars they found dead and injured persons lying near or pinned under the heavy wreckage. While the dead were being removed willing hands were working with might and under distressing circumstances. The shrieks of injured, some of whom were dying, the din and shouting, the noise of escaping steam as it hissed from battered engines, made the affair most distressing. The bodies of the dead were conveyed to the station at Hamilton and here the scenes were heartrending. Crowds of men and women thronged around the building, many in search of relatives or friends they knew were on the train. _■ .