Baileytown, IN Trolley Cars Collide, June 1909

10 KILLED; 40 HURT, IN TROLLEY CRASH.

MOTORMAN DISOBEYS ORDERS TO WAIT AND HIS CAR IS TELESCOPED IN NIGHT COLLISION.

WOMEN AMONG THE INJURED.

MOST OF THE VICTIMS WERE RETURNING HOME FROM THE AUTO RACES AT CROWN POINT, IND.

South Bend, Ind., June 20. -- Ten persons were killed and forty injured in a wreck on the Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend Railroad in Porter County, Indiana, last night, two of the big electric cars colliding head-on. According to General Manager H. U. Wallace, the wreck was due to disobedience of orders by Motorman GEORGE A REED of the east-bound car, who was killed.
REED received instructions at Gary to wait at Wilson, a short distance west of Baileytown, the point at which the disaster occurred, for the west bound car to pass. The impact of the cars was so great that they were reduced to a mass of wreckage.
The dead are:
GEORGE A. REED, motorman, Michigan City, Ind., formerly of Villa Grove, Ill.
RAY F. MERRIMAN, married, South Bend.
CHARLES JOHNSON, Porter, Ind.
EDWARD GILBERTSON, Porter, Ind.
A. BARBER, Hishawaka, Ind.
F. T. MOORE, residence unknown.
WILLIAM LEON, Secretary of the Dowaglac Motor Works, Dowaglac, Mich.
F. A. LAKE, President Dowaglac Motor Works, Dowaglac, Mich.
H. H. HUTSON, Niles, Mich.
CHARLES SWANTSON, Porter, Ind.
The seriously injured are:
FRED WUSTH, Chesterton, Ind.; chest crushed.
ARTHUR JOHNSON, Chesterton; skull fractured.
DELBERT E. KINNEY, Michigan City, conductor east-bound car; right arm and three ribs broken, right leg cut.
MRS. GUY STUTZMAN, Mishawaka, Ind.; hole cut in back of head and face cut by glass.
C. A. SIMMONS, Benton Harbor, Mich.; both legs broken.
MISS NAN LARSEN, Chesterton, Ind.; internal injuries; may die.
T. W. LOUIE, Mishawaka, Ind.; badly cut all over body.
PAUL WILSON, Michigan City, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio, assistant to General Supt. Wallace of the Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend Railroad; leg broken, head cut, and internal injuries; not expected to live.
The eastbound car was going fifty miles an hour to make up lost time. When the crash occurred the eastbound car was telescoped and almost demolished. In this train were all of the killed and most of the injured, the passengers on the west bound train escaping with bruises. The two cars were welded together in a mass of debris, in which lay the dead and dying and twoscore injured. Darkness greatly interferred with the progress of the rescuers, and to make matters worse, the nearest telephone was nearly a mile away.
All but one of the killed were in the smoking compartment of the car, in the front end. This space was crowded. TITUS E. KINZLE, a real estate dealer, and CORDIUS KLINE, both of South Bend, left the smoking room less than a minute before the crash came, and escaped death, although the latter suffered severe injuries.
Three physicians were sent from Michigan City in a gasoline traction speeder and three more dispatched in an automobile. When the physicians reached the scene they found scores of farmers and villagers rushing about endeavoring to care for the wounded and to extricate the dead and dying by the light of a few lanterns. Many of the wounded were pinioned in the wreckage so that it was necessary to use axes.

New York Times New York 1909-06-21
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!