It was the height of summer; late July 1912, when two railroad accidents occurred on the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix railway.
The first one “took place two miles south of [the] P&E junction on the SF, P&P line, and about for miles from this city,” the Weekly Journal-Miner described. It was around 5PM, July 17.
An incoming, southbound passenger train from Poland saw a northbound extra freight train heading for Ash Fork realized they were coming together on the same track. Both trains threw on the brakes, but there was no time (or distance enough) to stop a head-on collision. With nothing more they could do, the engineers and firemen of both trains jumped for safety before the crushing sounds of a great impact echoed across the land.
“The impact of the two engines was reported as terrific,” the paper continued, “both being telescoped, and when examined were locked together in a big mass of wreckage.” One of the cars was thrown from the track and another one was damaged. Despite the dangers of jumping from a moving train, none of the crew was injured.
Remarkably, the worst injury to the passengers was a bruised chin suffered by a Mayer woman. Another passenger was also bruised, but only slight injuries were sustained by the rest.
Two hours later, a wrecking train left the yard followed by a “switch engine” to bring in the passengers and the mail. Remarkably the clean-up was completed in time for the following trains to stay on schedule. “The responsibility for the collision was not given publicity,” the paper concluded.
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The second one occurred July 31 and was described by the Journal-Miner as “one of the worst wrecks in the history of the SF, P&P railway.” It occurred around 12:30 in the afternoon four miles away from town “near the east end of the Willow Creek bridge.”
An extra freight train of seventeen cars was filled with a weighty load of cement and coal with one engine pulling from the front and two engines pushing from the rear. The southbound train was rounding a curve at the foot of a steep grade when, after the first engine passed, a flange broke tossing eight cars into the ditch below.
The derailed freight cars tumbled into “every conceivable position, and and two were turned entirely around with the ends resting across the roadway. Others were in a mass several feet from the track,” the Journal-Miner described.
“The track was torn up and pieces of rail and ties were thrown 200 feet,” the Parker Post described. The freight crew was uninjured. However, “when viewing the wreck, they heard the faint cries of a man buried under the coal,” “All commenced shoveling and sent an engine flying to Prescott for more aid and a shoveling force,” the paper added. After struggling to dig down three feet, they found 70 year old William Westney “more dead than alive,” and “probably [suffering] internal injuries.”
He was headed for the Congress mining district from Goldfield, Nevada. He carried a union card for the Western Federation of Miners, but did not have a single penny on his person.
“The unfortunate miner was brought to [Prescott] on the first train and taken to the county hospital. His right leg [was] broken in two places below the knee, while his left one was badly mashed and is believed to be broken also,” the Journal-Miner explained. “He was bleeding profusely from deep wounds in the back, where several gashes were scene. His body presented the appearance of having been riddled with chunks of coal, and he was a pitiable sight to look at.” His wounds were declared to be mortal.
The passengers and mail of two trains, one northbound around 2 o’clock, the other southbound at 5, got a close-up view of the disaster as they were required to debark, walk around the accident scene, and board a train on the other side to continue their journey, but it wasn’t too long before the tracks were repaired and the railway was back to normal.
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SOURCES:
Weekly Journal-Miner, 7/23/1912; Pg. 7, Col. 1.
Parker Post, 8/3/1912; Pg. 2, Col. 2.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 8/7/1912; Pg. 3, Col. 6.
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