RAILWAY COLLISION.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 811, 28 January 1903, Page 4

RAILWAY COLLISION.

MANY LIVKS LOST

By telegraph —Press Association— Copyright^ (Per R.ftl.S. Sonoma at Auckland.) SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. S. A despatch from Condon, Ontario, of December 27, states 'Twenty-eight persons are dead and forty injured as the result oi a collision between the Pacific express on the Grand Trunk railway and a freight train. 'The express was running nearly two hours late, making fast time, and the freight was endeavoring to make to a siding to clear the track for the express, but failed by a minute or two. 'The trains tael head on. The locomotives reared up and fell in the ditch. The baggage car of the express: telescoped a smoker, and m an instant cries and shrieks of the wounded and dying filled the ai>Several of the dead were terribly mutilated. ’ 'Their heads were cut oil and legs wrenched from their bodies, A level stretch of snow became crimson with the blood ol the victims. The accident is believed to he duo to a telegraphist’s error, , The express train was made up ol (wj baggage cars, two iirst-class day ca.s, and two Pullman’s, tilled with people returning from holiday trips. zv blizzard was raging, and the air wis thick with swirling snow. Tim train was running fully JHty miles an hour when at Wansteau siding the headlight of the freight engine loomed up through the snow. The trains crashed together almost bcfoie it was realised that trouble was imminent, with a terrible gi aiding crash, and the rear of the. baggage car was driven‘into a coach three - fourths its length, killing a score and mitring two score more in wreckage. "Flames broke out,, hub were...quickly extinguished by the uninjured Volunteer rescuing parties did UcrTh? hitter cold added to the sitfler11December was a mouth of railroad disasters, and besides a liVluub.eJ 1 i V luub . eJ , ” miiioL disasters, in. earl, ol winch two more persons were lulled, a fciuhlc wreck occurred at Bigron,, Galiloi mu, on December 2b. ~, 'Pirn Owl train, running from .Sun Fret Cisco to Los Angelos, on the Southern Paciic line, broke tlowii, and was at a standstill when it was crashed into by the Stockton l Iyer ’ oi the same system, 'Twenty-seven persons were iuiilu an ,i a large number desperately inured The engine of the Flyer telescoped the rear coach ol the Owl train, crushing all the occupants and scalding them with steam winch esca ed from, rents in the, engine. The scene was so terrifying that it took men oE strong nerve for the res cue work. Such men, however, were 'VS the heroes were two ragged tramps who risked being sealdtd deatai and did gallant service.