Big Spring, TX train-truck wreck, Oct 1948

Big Spring Railman Dies After Accident

MIDLAND, Oct. 17 (AP) - D. I. Nichols, 50, of Big Spring died here of injuuries received early Sunday when a Texas and Pacific freight train struck a truck loaded with naptha.

Nichols was engineer of the train. Flames enveloped the locomotive when the naptha caught fire after the accident.

R. C. Reed, 48, also of Big Spring, train fireman, remained in a critical condition in a hospital here. He suffered third degree burns of the face, arms, chest, and back.

Sammie Garrett of Abilene, Tex., driver of the truck owned by the Yearwood Distributing Co. of El Paso, escaped injury.

The back of the truck was sheared off and some track was torn up.

Running behind the freight was a Texas and Pacific passenger train, but police raced down the track and flagged it down.

Garrett, who had been to a cafe and was driving back across the tracks, said he did not see the freight.

E. O. Hicks of Big Spring, conductor on the freight, was in the caboose and was not injured.

Reed and Nichols leaped from the locomotive at the time of the crash and were found about 700 feet down the tracks from where the locomotive and truck stopped.

The Abilene Reporter News, Abilene, TX 18 Oct 1948
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!