Piqua, OH Trolley Wreck, Aug 1908

FIVE KILLED TWO SCORE INJURED.

Traction Horror On the Western Ohio R. Y. Last Evening.

BLUNDER IN READING ORDERS

Cars Running at a Speed of Fifty Miles an Hour Meet Head-On.

Nearly Every Passenger on Both Cars Were Injured---F. A. Burkhardt, of This City One of the Seriously Injured.

Piqua, Ohio., August 10.---Somebody blundered. Somebody misunderstood the running orders.

That blunder cost three lives in a single second and two more a short time later. Twelve persons are dying. A score more are seriously injured.

With a crash that was heard three miles away two spreading Western Ohio Traction company interurban cars collided head-on immediately opposite the Shelby county Infirmary, 10 miles from this city, last night.

One car was running at the rate of 55 miles an hour.

It is said that the other was making 60.

The scene of carnage was something fearful to behold.

There was not a whole timber of either car left.

Farmers in the vicinity, aroused by the terrific crash, had sprung from their beds and were on their way, running to aid the injured.

"It Was a Hellish Sight."

William Morgan, farmer, was the first man who reached the spot. Here are his words:

"It was a hellish sight!" "Both cars were piles of kindling. What added to the horror of the scene was a strange silence. I didn't hear a moan when I first reached the place. It seemed as if everybody must be dead or unconscious.

"Even the two or three passengers who escaped serious harm must have been stunned. There wasn't a sign of life for fully a minute after I got there.

"I pulled a timber off a man's let and he looked up with a silly smile, asking: "Have you a button hook?" "Then he burst out into idiotic laughter. There was a hole in his head.

"Something rolled against my foot. It looked like a human head. Then I caved in.

WORKING LIKE DEMONS.

"When I came to, a small army of farmers and other men were working like demons to get at and liberate the folks in the wreckage, I joined them."

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