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Show MANY AKE KILLbU US TRAINS CLASH THIRTY-SIX PASSENGERS KILLED AND SCORES INJURED WHEN TRAINS CRASH Wreck I Attributed to Failure of Engineer En-gineer to Heed Signal; Work of Removing Dead and Injured Is Gruesome Task Sulphur Springs, Mo. Failare of an engineer to heed a block signal caused the rear-end collision on the Missouri Pftcific Saturday night in which thirty-six persons were killed and about 138 injured, twenfy-five seriously, according ac-cording to John Cannon, assistant general gen-eral manager of the road. Train No. 4, a fast passenger, ves-tibuled, ves-tibuled, steel train running at full speed, crashed into No. 32, a local composed of five wooden day coaches a baggage and an express car, as the engine was taking on water with the coaches stretching back on a. trestle over Glaise Creek. The impact hurled two of the local coaches down a fifty-foot embankment embank-ment edging the Mississippi and tele scoped four other coaches, crushing a number of the passengers to death in ther falls. Both trains were running run-ning behind time and the fast passenger, pas-senger, running from Fort Worth, Texas, to St. Louis, carried l SO passengers pas-sengers and the local 100 pu;sons. According to Mr. Cann..';, Matt G. Glenn of St. Louis, enymjer of the fast passenger, failed to heed a block-signal block-signal warning him that the track was not clear ahead. Glenn, 57 years of age, an engineer for thirty-seven years without a black mark against his' record, re-cord, was killed when he jumped from the cab just before the crash. Edward Tinsley, also of St. Louis, fireman of No. 4, remained at his post and was injured seriously. Engineer Gleen shortly before arriving ar-riving in Sulphur Springs received orders or-ders "on the run" to pull over on a siding at Cliff Cave, ten miles north of here, to allow "Sunshine .Special No. 1," en route from St. Louis to Texas points, to pass, and Mr. Cannon explained ex-plained the engineer failed to heed the block signal because he apparently apparent-ly was reading these orders when he passed the block. Just south of the scene of the disaster dis-aster there is a curve in the road, which cut off view of the local train on the trestle. Missouri Pacific officials, offi-cials, however, emphasized that the block signals were operating in perfect per-fect order, and Engineer Glenn should have slowed his train down so that he could have come to a halt almost instantly. The last body was removed from the debris early Sunday. A group of rescues, kerosene torches lighting their way, came down the track to the little railroad station with the Inert In-ert figure on a litter, improvised from boards of the splintered wreckage. The railroad tracks parallel the Mississippi Mis-sissippi river and the trestle on which the disaster occurred spans Glaise Creei where it enters the river. As a result, a report was current that a number of bodies were hurled into the Mississippi. There was no way of verifying this report, however. Rescue work was interferred with by lack of proper light. This little village is without electricity, and the rescue workers and morbidly curious made their way among the mass of twisted steel and crumbmled wooden coaches by the aid of kerosene torches and lights on sticks. Thousands of persons per-sons visited here late Sunday night to view the wreck and roads were blocked for a radius of three miles. Dr. Hull, who was anion,' the first at the wreck, told the Assoociated Press that bodies of dead were found 200 feet from the scene of the accident. acci-dent. One body was buried waist deep in a bog. Dr. George A. Elders, coroner of Jefferson county, said a thorough investigation of the acciden' would be made. |