Coal Valley, PA Train Collision, Mar 1901

WRECKED TRAIN BURNS.

FLAMES ADD TO A RAILROAD DISASTER IN PENNSYLVANIA.

Pittsburg, Pa., March 1 -- Two dead, three badly hurt and a passenger train burned is the result of a head-end collision between a passenger train south-bound and a local freight on the Pittsburg, Virginia and Charleston Railroad last evening at Coal Valley, five miles from McKeesport.
Dead:
FRANK WHITE, engineer, of Uniontown, horribly mangled.
MILTON S. THOMPSON, mail clerk, of Brownsville,
leg burned off, hurt internally, died on way to hospital.
Injured:
C. SHAVER, fireman, Uniontown, badly scalded and bruised.
CHARLES STROUD, baggagemaster, burned and bruised.
MICHAEL KULIK, Schoenville, a passenger, back hurt.
None of the other passengers was hurt beyond minor cuts and bruises.
Immediately after the collision the passenger cars took fire and soon were totally destroyed, only one car escaping the flames. The trains in collision were the Uniontown express, south-bound, and a local freight, coming toward Pittsburg. The local was standing on a siding between the north and south bound tracks, delivering freight at the time. For some reason as yet unexplained, instead of keeping to the main track, the express shot off into the siding and telescoped the other train. All of the victims were on the express train, which carried between fifty and sixty passengers. The enginemen of the freight jumped when they saw the collision was inevitable.

The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette Iowa 1901-03-01
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!