TRAINS CRASH AND NEARLY 30 ARE DEAD

Reports Say That between 50 and 75 Others Injured.

SMASH AT NASHVILLE.

Ambulances and Relief Workers Are Rushed to Scene of Accident.

Nashville, Tenn., July 9. -- Two trains on the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis railway collided early to-day near Belle Meade Park in the western suburbs of Nashville.

Telephone reports from the scene of the wreck are to the effect that between twenty-five and thirty were killed and between fifty and seventy-five persons injured. Ambulances, doctors, and nurses have been rushed to scene.

The wreck occurred at 7:15 o'clock on the Dutchman's grade, seven miles from Nashville.

One train was eastbound from Memphis and St. Louis and the other from Nashville to Memphis.

Both engines and two baggage cars were completely wrecked. A combination coach on the local, filled with white and negro passengers, was ripped from end to end.

Six passenger coaches in all were through train caught fire and were demolished and two cars of the of the burned up. (Really printed this way STU) Wrecking crews and volunteers worked heroically in the wreckage to rescue the injured.

Most of the dead, it is believed, are negroes. At 10 o'clock about forty injured had reached the City hospital.

Several of the number died later. Two Pullman coaches escaped serious damage. The entire crew of the local train was killed.

The Syracuse Herald New York 1918-07-09

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NEARLY A HUNDRED KILLED IN A WRECK

BETWEEN 75 AND 100 PERSONS BELIECED [sic] DEAD

Two Passenger Trains on Nashville--St. Louis Road Crashed Together.

(By United Press)
Nashville, Tenn., July 9. -- Railroad officials estimated early this afternoon that between 75 and 100 persons were killed when two Nashville and St. Louis passenger trains clashed together near Bosley Springs at 7 o'clock this morning. A misunderstanding of orders is believed to have been responsible for the wreck. Fire immediately broke out and many of the passengers who were not killed outright in the collision were burned to death or suffered severe injury.

A relief train was immediately rushed to the scene from Nashville, manned by doctors and nurses. The mangled and charred bodies were distributed among local morgues. Most of the dead are negroes.

Both trains were running at a high rate of speed when the crash occurred, the engines being telescoped and the crash reducing the coaches to kindling wood. The greatest loss of life occurred in the coaches occupied by negroes which were crowded. Every ambulance in the city was pressed into service.

Chillicothe Constitution Missouri 1918-07-08
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!