B & O Probe to Find Reasons For Fatal
Collision
Martinsburg, W. VA - (UP) -- Baltimore & Ohio Railroad officials
started an investigation today to determine why two freight trains
traveling in opposite directions were routed over a single line track at
the same time.
The trains, hauling a total of 314 cars, collided headon Tuesday,
killing three crewmen and injuring five others. Both locomotives
and 41 cars left the rails and piled up along the right of way.
The collision occurred 11 miles west of here along the Potomac River
near the Maryland border.
The men killed were riding in the diesel locomotive of an eastbound
train hauling 145 loaded freight cars and nine empty cars from
Cumberland, Md., to Brunswick, Md.
Their train, believed traveling at about 25 miles an hour, crashed
into a freight with 160 empty coal cars westbound from Cumbo, W.Va., to
Keyser, W. Va.
The dead were F. B. PHILLIPS, Lovettsville, Va, engineer; L. R.
HOLLER, Boonsboro, Md., fireman; and J. C. BEARD, Brunswick, head
brakeman.
The injured were brought to King's Daughter Hospital here.
The movement of passenger trains, which use two other lines in the
area, was not affected by the wreck. |