Nashville, TN Train Wreck, Jul 1918 - Toll is 75

COLLISION TOLL IS 75

TWO PASSENGER TRAINS CRASH NEAR NASHVILLE.

INJURED LIST MAY TOTAL 75

FIRE BROKE OUT IN THE DEBRIS OF THE WRECK

Details Lacking and the Cause of the Accident Not Made Plain – Most of the Victims are Negroes.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 9. – May persons were killed and seventy-five injured when two Nashville Chattanooga and St. Louis passenger trains crashed together near Bosley Springs, at 7 a. m. today. Early this afternoon railroad officials estimated the dead at between seventy-five and one hundred. A misunderstanding of orders is believed to be 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 injury from the flames.

A relief train was immediately rushed to the scene from Nashville, manned with doctors, nurses, firemen and first aid equipment.

The mangled and charred bodies brought here were distributed among local morgues.
No effort has been made to estimate the dead as it has been impossible to enter some of the splintered and burning coaches.

Both trains were running at a high speed when the crash occurred, the engines being telescoped and the coaches reduced 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. Later, as the rescue work progressed, St. Thomas infirmary became overtaxed and a great number was removed to the city hospital.

Attendants at the hospitals were so overburdened with operations that they were unable to supply an accuarte [sic] list of the injured.

The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, NE 9 Jul 1918