Clay City, KY Train Accident, Jul 1901

DEAF MUTE WAS KILLED

ALEXANDER AINES WALKED IN FRONT OF L. & E. ENGINE.

News was received here last evening of the tragic death at Clay City of Alexander Aines, a deaf mute laborer, aged 45 years, who was struck by train No. 3 of the L. & E. a little West of Roslin, a station seven miles East of Clay City.

Aines was tramping along the track from Clay City about 4:30 o'clock when first seen by engineer J. H. Combs, whose train was speeding towards Clay City. The whistle was used vigorously and Aines stepped from off the track. The man seems, however, not to have seen the train and started to cross the track again. Engineer Combs, now very near him, put on air brakes with such force that the train slid along the track. He was too late, the cowcatcher striking Aines and tossing him off the track.

When picked up by the engineer and Conductor Sam Martin, life was almost extinct in Aines, he having been struck on the left side, crushing it. He was placed on the train and taken to Clay City, where Dr. Irvin attended. He was placed in a wagon and started to the home of his sister, Mrs. Frazier, at Pompey Branch, a short distance of Clay City. While on the way there he breathed his last, never having recovered consciousness.

Aines was unmarried and had no close relatives than his sister, Mrs. Frazier. He was a well known character about Clay City and was liked by all.

A peculiar fact in connection with the death of Aines is that this was the third time he had been struck and dangerously injured by an engine. About seven years ago, late one evening, he was walking along the L. & E. tracks at Dundee when he was struck and thrown seventy feet through a barbed wire fence. Besides minor injuries both legs and arms were broken and the physicians considered it almost a miracle that he recovered.

Three years ago while on the C. & O. railroad track near Winchester he was hit by an engine and seriously hurt.

The Morning Herald, Lexington, KY 17 Jul 1901
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Transcribed by Linda Horton. Thank you, Linda!