Show f f f basas fa SaS f i TJ t i r TRAIN WRECK ON BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD THE WORST IN MANY YEARS the awful disaster to the duquesne flyer on the baltimore and ohio rail road near dawson pa dec dee 24 makes a sad christmas tor for many families it Is not only the worst vorst railroad calam ity this year but the worst in many I 1 years there have been thirty derail ments and collisions during the year where the loss of life has been excel tio tlona nally lly large but the collision on the big four railroad of nn no 19 when thirty one were killed and seventeen injured had been the worst up to the present horror in this one twice as many were allied killed and five times as many ired it may be interesting in connection with these thirty dasas to know that twenty ot of them were caused by collisions and ten by de rail ments which would seem to andl cate that more attention is paid to the condition of the roadbed than to the details of running trains if there can be adv consolation in such an accident by which over three score persons v ere killed outright and many others were injured some of whom will die it is in the fact that it does not appear to have been the result of carelessness or In effic ency A freight train loaded with timbers bad tad just preceded the passenger train and some of the ties had fallen upon the track the duquesne flyer running at great speed rounded a curve and before the engineer could slacken speed the entire train except a sleeper and dining car was derailed the timbers were properly loaded but the breaking of a stay a contingency whish hardly could have been foreseen let some of them down the dr thomas B mehard of cannelis connells Con nells nelis ville pa who assisted in rescue work and attended many of the injured in the railroad wreck near that city dec dee 24 has given a scientific medical version of the cause of the deaths he ile said many persons have been mistaken as to what caused the deaths of the wreck victims believing they were due to scalds and ard burns aside from the engineer and fireman who died from crushing violence the death of all the others was due to the ingala tion ot of superheated steam thus caus ing an edema of the larynx and in crew of the freight train were not in a position to know ll 11 it was a horr horribly ibl disaster men were crushed to death scalded to death burned to death cars were telescoped smashed burned every detail of horror and of suffering ble in a railroad wreck characterized this one it Is not creditable to skill in construction thai that cars should be built of material which Is made all the more inflammable by paint and varnish put on in profusion and that they should be built so lightly and go to pieces as easily as a cardboard house the old wooden vessels have largely given place to steel vessels why should not the old wooden cars be succeeded by steel cars which will offer some resistance in case of acci dent and reduce the risks of death and injury to crew and passengers CAUSE OF THE WRECK information seems to show disaster was anavo dable the wreck was caused by the break ing of the castings on a carload of bridge timbers on a w westbound est bound freight train which had passed laurel run not more than fifteen minutes before the passenger train the wreck occurred on a curve and it was impossible tor for engineer thornley to see far enough ahead to detect the obstruction on the tracks the big atlantic type engine ed into the timbers at a velocity of sixty miles an hour the eng ne no plowed into the embankment and the vie baggage and express cars were thrown into the river the smoker followed the engine and land ed squarely on top of it this allowed the escaping steam from the engine to fill the car the er was pack ed to its utmost capacity and all the passengers were cooked alive most of the killed were vere foreigners who were literally roasted to death the baggage and smoker telescoping the engine and dimmed abely catching fire not a single passenger in the car escaped with hip hi life and it is esti estl mated that at least forty of the dead were in the smoker an op operator at V R tower on the pittsburg and lake erie railroad across the river was the first to send word ot of the accident and to send for relief he ile was watch ing the duquesne limited as lt it was speeding along the baltimore and ohio tracks across the river he saw the cars pile high in the air and then sink back on the trad s the screams of the injured and dying were plainly heard in another second he was sending word to the railroad of ficiala at dawson and connellsville for more than feet both the east and west bound tracks were torn up the engine was completely demolished moli moll shed and the big 7 gallon tank on the tender was thrown feet ahead from the wreckage the bag gage car was thrown into the river but was only slightly wrecked all the cars were derailed and the mi lh 4 it III pill fill it fill al jill 11 it III I 1 I 1 I 1 ter fering with respiration death resulting from the want of oxygen in other words the victims died of air starvation the word edema practically means an escape of the watery element of the blood in the surrounding tissues thus causing pressure on the opening from the lungs to the throat in the place where the vocal cords are at rached this change in the vocal cords and larynx practically a scald ing or cooking caused the alteration in voice sounds emitted by those who inhaled the deadly steam this death Is one of the most horrible known to medical science trucks of all except the diner were torn completely from underneath the cars few people were injured in the pull man cars and the diners although few escaped without at least some slight injuries hardly had the bodies of the dead been removed from the coaches until thieves began robbing the dead of jewelry and money special officers were deputized and with the aid of the baltimore and ohio police force and connellsville officers the work of the ghouls was stopped it Is charged that the foreigners who escaped serious injury in the wreck immediately set about robbing their more unfortunate countrymen and the dead us As well as injured were robbed of their money and other valuables |