Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-01-23 | Page 1 | Snowslide Hits Limited Train in Washington

SNDWSLIDEHITS LIMITED TRAIN IN WASHINGTON Diner and Passenger Car Carried Down Mountainside Mountain-side Near Corea Station in the Cascades. FOUR BODIES SO FAR RECOVERED Number of Dead Not Definitely Defi-nitely Known; Accident Near Scene of the 1910 Railroad Horror. SEATTLE, Wash., Jan. 22. Early tonight to-night four bodies had been recovered from the day coach of the westbound Great Northern Cascade Limited train two cars of which were struck by an avalanche near Corea station, on the west slope of the Cascade mountains, and carried down the mountain-side today. to-day. The bodies recovered were those of: BERT KIEKMAN, Sheridan, Wyo. W. F. CARTER, East Vancouver, B. C. EDWARD BATTERMA1T and baby, Wenatchee, Wash. Boy Is Missing. A 10-year-old son of Mr. Batterman is missing, and it is feared he is dead. Still another passenger, name not known, has not been found. The railroad rail-road company says the total list of dead will not exceed six. Fifteen passengers were injured, none soriously except Ernest Er-nest Smith of Spokane, a small boy. The injured were taken to the hotel at Scenic, a few miles below Corea, and cared for by physicians. Tho injured and uninjured passengers will be brought to Seattle tonight. None of the trainmen or dining car employees was killed. Carried Down Mountain. The train was held at Corea by a small slide. WThen the track was about cleared an avalanche broke from the mountain and caught the dining car and day coach.' They went down the mountainside, moun-tainside, and the diner caught fire and was destroyed. One dead man and three injured were extricated from it and a charred body remained while rescuers devoted their efforts to the other victims. vic-tims. Concrete snowsheds were erected on the approaches to the Cascade tunnel following the tragedy of February 28, 1910, when two passenger trains were swept from the track by a snowslide near the scene of the present accident. Railroad engineers believed that all points liable to be reached by a slide had been protected. Rescue Work Prompt. SEATTLE, Wash., Jan. 22. Peter Saver of Leavenworth, Wash., was in the smoking car when the avalanche struck the train. At first he thought there had been a collision. The car began be-gan to rise, he said, and all the passengers pas-sengers rushed to the front to get out. He looked 'out of tho window and saw the chair car and dining car tumble over. The dining car turned over once, slid many feet and then burst into flames. All those escaping injury rushed to extricate mo passengers Ouned in the snow. Miss Fern Murdoch, a young school teacher of Cashmere, Wash., was in the end of the chair car and was thrown down the mountain side fifty feet into snow up to her neck. Mrs. Edward Batterman of Wenatchee, Wenat-chee, with her husband and three children, chil-dren, was on her way to Oregon to attend at-tend the funeral of her mother. She was in the lavatory warming a bottle of milk for her eight-months-old bahv when the slide hit the car. The bottle broke, severely cu.tin her. Pinned in Car. She was pinned in the car bv debri and it was forty minutes after an opening open-ing was cut into the car before she was extricated. Her hnshand and bahy were found dead, the babv clasped in its father's arms. Her iO-vcar-old son i:: missing. The third child escaped unhurt. un-hurt. Johnson Marbrc of Toledo. 0.. was among the passengers that escaped un-iured. un-iured. M. J. Costello. assistant traffic manager man-ager of the Great Northern, was shaving shav-ing in the parlor car, but escaped unhurt, un-hurt, j Several passencers in the sleeping I car were slightly hurt when the froi r end of the ear was thrown around j (Continued on Page Two.) SNOWSLIDE STRIKES CARS II iWITDl (Continued from Page One.) and hung suspended over the canyon. 1 In their hurry lo escape many passengers passen-gers fled partly dressed and huddled to- ' gether wrapped in blankets uutil relief arrived. . Another snowslide east of Corea today to-day tore out several hundred feet of suuwsheds.