Kensington, OH Train Wreck, May 1910

THREE MAY DIE FROM INJURIES

Sustained by Derailing of a Pennsylvania Train on Cleveland and Pittsburg Division

AT KENSINGTON, 18 MILES FROM ALLIANCE

Five Cars of the Train Were Derailed and Went Over a Fourteen Foot Embankment – The Injured Passengers Riding in the Smoking Car. Cause of the Wreck Unknown.

Alliance, May 12. – Three men were probably fatally injured, several other passengers and trainmen were badly hurt and many persons were given a severe shakeup when westbound passenger train No. 307 on the Cleveland & Pittsburg division of the Pennsylvania lines west, was derailed and all but one of the cars was thrown over a fourteen-foot embankment shortly after 9 o’clock to-day at Kensington station, eighteen miles south of Alliance.

The injured are:
P. F. Gagan, of Crafton, Pa., head and ribs injured; continued his journey.
J. Helstein, Cleveland, O., head and hands injured; continued his journey.
G. H. Gages, Cleveland, O., head and knees injured; continued his journey.
H. Duncan, an aged passenger, address unknown, cut about the heat and sustained fractures of the ribs; taken to hospital in Cleveland.
Fireman L. Kurtz, Pittsburg, crushed under engine; may die.
W. Joyce, Cleveland, internal injuries and cut.
W. Dennison, Summitville, O., skull fractured; may die.
Engineer Hayes.
Express Messenger Bittmer, Canton, O.
Fireman, name unknown.

All more or less hurt.

The cause of the derailment is a puzzle to the railway officials. It is officially stated that the train was not running over thirty miles an hour and a cursory examination of track and the equipment does not show reason for the wreck.

The injured passengers were riding in the second or smoking car. Passengers in other coaches were shaken up but not severely hurt, although five of the cars on the train slid over the steep embankment. The sixth coach was derailed but remaining upright on the roadbed.

A special train bearing physicians and nurses was made up at Alliance and cared for the injured.

Mansfield News, Mansfield, OH 12 May 1910
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Transcribed by Jenni Lanham.