FLYER CRASHES INTO A LOCAL AND 47 KILLED.

ACCOMMODATION HAD JUST LEFT STATION WHEN COLLISION TOOK PLACE.

WORST WRECK IN HISTORY OF THE L. & N. RAILROAD.

RIGID EXAMINATION BEING CONDUCTED BY W. F. SHERIDAN.

The Dead:
DAVID MARAMAN, Shepherdsville.
MRS. CARRIE SIMMONS, Shepherdsville.
MRS. MAY MUIR and GEORGE MUIR, Bardstown.
MRS. R. H. MILLER, Bardstown.
MRS. ARCH PULLIAM, Bardstown.
JAMES THOMPSON, Bardstown.
MRS. THOMAS MOORE, SR., Bardstown.
MRS. MacMILLER, Bardstown.
W. MacMILLER, Bardstown.
MRS. H. H. MASHBURN, Bardstown.
JOHN PHILLIPS, Bardstown.
BEN TALBOT, Bardstown.
MR. and MRS. R. C. CHERRY, Bardstown.
R. C. CHERRY, JR., Bardstown.
MRS. KATIE ICE, Bardstown Junction.
JAMES MORRISON, 12, Bardstown Junction.
GEORGE DUKE, Bardstown Junction.
VIRGINIA DUKE, 12, Bardstown Junction.
REV. E. A. BERTELLO, Chapeze.
W. H. THOMPSON, New Hope.
MRS. THOMAS MILLER, New Hope.
Flagman GREENWELL, of accommodation, Louisville.
Conductor CAMPBELL, of accommodation, Louisville.
FOREST OVERALL, High Grove.
EMORY SAMUELS, Deatsville.
THOMAS SPALDING, Springfield.
J. W. STANSBERRY, Bardstown Junction.
Add List Identified Dead:
MRS. JOHN PHILLIPS, Bardstown.
MISS ELLA PHILLIPS, Bardstown.
MISS ALTHA SIMMS, Springfield, Ky.
ELIZABETH McELROY, Springfield, Ky.
JOSIE BRIDGES, Deatsville, Ky.
HOLLIE BRIDGES, 20, Deatsville, Ky.
LUCAS MOORE, Louisville.
FRANK NUNN, Louisville.
MRS. GEORGE DUKE, Bardstown Junction.
MISS EMMA SAMUELS, Deatsville, Ky.
A. W. SHERMAN, Samuels Depot, Ky.
MRS. DANIEL NUTT, 38, Shepherdsville.

Shepherdsville, Ky., Dec. 21. -- (APT) -- The death toll taken last night when Louisville & Nashville fast train No. 7, from Cincinnati to New Orleans, crashed into the rear-end of a Louisville, Bardstown and Springfield accommodation train a few hundred feet south of the railroad station here, had reached 47 today.
The number killed was at first placed by W. F. Sheridan, superintendent of the Louisville division of the Louisville & nashville, at 38. Revision of this figure caused by additional deaths from among those badly injured increased the total to 47.
The wreck, which is said to be the worst in the history of the Louisville & Nashville, occurred just after the local train had pulled out of the station here. It had gone only a short distance when the other train came into sight, traveling at a high rate of speed. Before it could be halted it had crashed into the slower-moving train ahead and made kindlilng wood of the two wooden passenger coaches it carried.
The locomotive pulling the fast train was badly damaged by the impact, but the engineer and fireman escaped with a few bruises. The heavy steel coaches it pulled were undamaged, with the exception of one baggage car, and the train was able to proceed when a second locomotive had been secured from Louisville, and the wreckage of the local train cleared from the right-of-way.
Blame for the disaster seems to hinge upon whether the fast train had been given a clear block or not. Jesse Weatherford, operator at the station, said immediately after the collision that after the local train pulled away from the station he had turned his board to show the track clear for the fast train and then left his post in response to orders to help unload baggage.
As he left the office he said he saw the train approaching, rushed back to his office, set the red danger signal, picked up a red lantern and rushed to the platform to flag it. He reached the platform just as the train passed him, he said.
Superintendent Sheriden closely questioned the crews of both train as well as the station force, but declined to attempt to fix the blame, without further investigation.
Immediately after the crash passengers from the New Orleans train and Shepherdsville citizens rushed to the aid of those imprisoned beneath the wreckage of the local.
Several of those killed were so badly disfigured that it was impossible to identify them last night.
Two children, whose identity had not been determined early today, were found in snowdrifts into which they had been thrown, and were cared for last night by Shepherdsville citizens.
One, a girl of about 11 years of age, was apparently unhurt, but had suffered such a violent shock as to lose her memory, at least temporarily. The other child, a little girl about four years old, was asleep when picked from the snowdrift into which she had been pitched by the impact of the collision. Her rescuers decided not to awaken her, after it was found she was unhurt, and the child slept the night through.
Many of the injured were so badly hurt that it is feared the death list will be increased even further.

The Newark Advocate Ohio 1917-12-21

__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!