Cambridge, OH Train & Traction Car Collision, July 1913

STORM HIDDEN ENGINE

Crashes Into Loaded Traction Car Near Zanesville, O.

Four Passengers Killed Outright and Sixteen Others Injured

Zanesville, Ohio, July 14 -- Four persons were killed and 16 injured when Baltimore and Ohio passenger train No. 15, westbound, struck a Cambridge and Byesville interurban car at a grade crossing a mile and a half from the center of Cambridge at 7:15 last night.
The wreck was caused by the conductor of the traction car thinking the headlight of the locomotive was a flash of lightning and signalled the motorman to go ahead.
The Dead
FRED RAINEY, 32 years old, Cambridge.
BOLA FAIRCHILD, 32 years old, Cambridge.
WILLIAM CARTER, 22 years old, Middlebourne, Ohio.
EDWARD McNEELY, Columbus.
The Fatally Injured
SHELDON STILES, Cambridge.
The Severely Injured
MR. and MRS. J. B. CARTER, Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
B. T. CLAUDIE, WILLIAM BURLINGAME, S. D. FARRAR, MIKE SOLOMON, THOMAS SILLS, FRANK JONES, MRS. JACOB BAXTER and four children, all of Byesville.
SHERMAN McNEELY, Columbus.
The interurban, which runs between Cambridge and Byesville, stopped at the crossing, and Conductor WILLIAM LENNER went ahead to see if the track was clear. He looked up the track and saw the headlight, but a driving wind and rain, accompanied by almost constant lightning and thunder, prevented him from seeing or hearing distinctly, and he thought the light was only lightning.
The interurban car was reduced to kindling wood. All of those killed and the one fatally hurt were in the rear end of the car, which was a closed winter coach. The engine was derailed.
Passengers helped in the work of rescue. The injured were taken to Cambridge and Keenan hospitals.

Lima Daily News Ohio 1913-07-14
__________________

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