3 KILLED, 2 HURT IN TRAIN WRECK

Head-On of Nickel Plate Freights Kills 3 Trainmen at Edwardsville, Ill.

14 Cars Piled Up
Fire Follows Wreck

Edwardsville, Ill., Mar. 27 (A.P.) -- Three trainmen were killed and two were injured in a head-on collision late yesterday between two freight trains of the Nickel Plate System near the Edwardsville station. Fire followed the crash and the bodies of the victims were not recovered until firemen had extinguished the flames. Fourteen freight cars were piled up in the crash.
The dead:
JOHN FRANKLIN, 38, engineer, Charleston, Ill.
FRANK ADAIR, 30, fireman, Charleston, Ill.
O. T. BENSLEY, 30, brakeman, Charleston, Ill.
The injured:
HARRY SMITH, engineer, cuts and bruises.
J. M. KIPPLE, fireman, fractured skull and internal injuries.
The body of FRANKLIN, engineer on the east-bound freight train, was the last to be taken from the debris by rescue workers into last night. The two other bodies were recovered this morning.
Trainmen attributed the crash to confused orders, but blame was not fixed. The collision occurred three blocks from a siding near the Edwardsville station where one of the trains was to have stopped to permit the other to pass. SMITH, engineer on the west-bound train, said two torpedoes had been placed on the track and that both exploded before the crash. He added, however, that the torpedoes were placed on the track as a warning to workmen in the yards.
All of the men killed and injured were riding in the cabs of the two locomotives which overturned. R. MIDDLESWORTH, of Charleston, a brakeman on the west bound train, jumped from the cab and escaped injury. He and SMITH said both trains were traveling about 25 miles an hour.
Bodies of the victims were being held in an undertaking establishment here today pending the outcome of an inquest.

Moberly Monitor-Index Missouri 1929-03-27
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!