The Hartford Herald

FEARFUL WRECK.

Fast Flyer Plunged Into Work Engine at Caneyville—Three Killed and Three Injured.

In a collision between the fast passenger train No. 104 on the Illinois Central, bound from New Orleans to Cincinnati, and a work engine at Caneyville, eighty-four miles from Louisville at 5:55 o'clock Saturday morning, three men were instantly killed. Three others were injured. One of the engines was demolished; the other engine and three cars were derailed.

The list of victims is as follows:

KILLED—Robert Stith, Louisville, engineer on the freight engine; Thomas Lewis Bell, Louisville, watchman on freight engine; J. E. W. Roberts, Central City, fireman on passenger train.

INJURED—Louis Cofer, Louisville, engineer on passenger train, teeth knocked out, badly cut and bruised; Dan J. McCann, Louisville, conductor on work train, leg crushed and badly bruised and mangled; John Sondrett, Louisville, badly burned about head and hands.

The passenger train struck the work engine with a terrific crash. On the work train at the time of the collision were the engineer, Robert Stith; T. W. Bell who had been employed as night watchman on the work train and who was acting as fireman, and D. J. McCann, the conductor of the work train.

The freight engine, which was No. 726, was demolished and the occupants were buried beneath the debris.

The passenger engine was hurled from the track, carrying the postal, express and compartment cars with it. The three Pullmans, which were just behind remained on the track and the passengers were not even shaken. The collision occurred at a water tank just outside the station.

The fast passenger train, which was due to pass that point about 5:30 o'clock, was late, as it had been for several days.

An I. C. work train had been down the line near Caneyville. The cars were detached on a siding, and the engine, a light freight, had been run on the main track to take water.

It was reported from the scene of the wreck that the work crew had sent out a flagman to warn the passenger train, and it is supposed that the engineer did not see the flag. The passenger train came along at the rate of forty-five miles an hour.

W. O. Roberts, the fireman of the passenger engine, was buried under his engine and instantly killed, Cofer, the engineer, jumped and escaped with bad bruises and the loss of his teeth.

McCann was pinned under the work engine. Sondrett was the only passenger in the mixed baggage and smoker, so far as can be learned, and he was caught between timbers.

An investigation to fix the responsibility for the wreck on the Illinois Central railroad, at Caneyville, Saturday morning will be held at once. The indications are that the responsibility will be fixed on Dan J. McCann, the conductor of the freight train, who permitted Stith to take his engine on the main track in direct violation of orders. Had there not been a wreck and had the attention of the road officials been called to McCann's grievous error he would have been discharged instantly. As it is he paid the penalty of his error by the loss of a foot.

Some little blame for the accident will likely be attached to W. H. Turner, the flagman of the freight train. Turner admits that he failed to place torpedoes on the rail, but insists that he flagged the train. However, had he placed the torpedoes, as he was instructed to do, he would have made doubly sure and there would have been no wreck.

No more deaths have occurred as the result of the accident and the officials say there will be no more.