N&W in 1911--Gasoline speeder

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
May 6, 1911

ROADMASTER KILLED TWO OFFICIALS HURT
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Gasoline Speeder on Which They Were Making Inspection Trip Stuck by Train
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J. M. WALKER WAS LITERALLY CUT TO PIECES
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Master Carpenter Anderson Sustains Lacerated Kidney and Assistant Superintendent Dawson Receives a Severe Scalp Wound
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PIECE OF SKULL REMOVED, BUT RECOVERY IS EXPECTED
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    An official bulletin received at the Norfolk and Western offices this morning at 2:30 o'clock, signed by Dr. Hix, the physician in charge at Miner's Hospital at Welch, stated that W. R. Dawson is doing well, but J. R. Anderson's condition is regarded as serious.
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    Roadmaster J. M. Walker was killed yesterday morning at 10:45 o'clock and the assistant superintendent of the Pocahontas division, W. R. Dawson, and Master Carpenter J. R. Anderson were injured, when a train of coal cars, extra 1010, west, drifting down the hill at Wilmore, crashed into a gasoline speeder on which the three officials were riding while making an inspection of the road and bridges west of Welch.
    The freight train was making fully thirty miles an hour when the crash occurred and the speeder was not making over six miles.  The impact was so severe that Messrs. Dawson and Anderson were thrown from the car, while Mr. Walker was caught underneath the train and literally cut to pieces.  The injured men were placed in the cab of second 86, in charge of Conductor Clendenin, who in spite of the request of Mr. Anderson that he be taken to Bluefield and the same request from Mr. Dawson, put the men off at the Miner's Hospital at Welch.  As the accident occurred but about twenty miles west of Welch the men were quickly given medical attention.
    Owing to the uncertainty regarding the injuries to Mr. Dawson and Mr. Anderson a special train was made up to his city, which left the depot at 1:25 p.m., carrying Mr. W. R. Dawson, her sister, Miss Lucy Stewart, Miss Hearn, Chief Clerk S. N. Worley, Trainmaster H. C. Weller, Car Distributor J. B. Shumate, Dr.  C. M. Scott, the Dawson family physician, and W. O. O'Brien, a former trainmaster of the division, now editor of the Tazewell Republican.  At Graham the special was boarded by Mrs. J. R. Anderson and all speed was made to Welch with a passenger engine attached to a baggage car and a day coach.
    This trip was made because at that time it was thought that both Mr. Dawson and Mr. Anderson had been injured fatally and their wives wanted to be with them.  Orders were issued from Roanoke to at once make up the special and spare no expense doing everything possible for the men.
    W. S. Becker, superintendent of the Pocahontas division, was at Roanoke yesterday and got in communication with the Bluefield offices as soon as possible after the accident occurred.  President L. E. Johnson and other officials called up this city, urging that every care be taken of the men and that they be kept informed of their progress.  George F. Johnson, general superintendent of the western division, left a few days ago for a southern trip and was out of the section when the accident occurred.
    It was learned late yesterday from Mr. Dawson that the accident occurred without any warning.  The engine on train 1010 was being driven by Engineer Crowell, who was drifting down the hill.  The approach of the train, according to Mr. Dawson, who was able to make a short statement concerning the accident, was not noticed until the train was upon them.
    The engineer had the automatic block signal giving him a clear track and did not know of the speeder, which is able to pass through blocks without affecting the signals.
    It could not be learned whether an east bound train was approaching but it is believed at the local division offices that such was the case and that the men were watching that train to the exclusion of any possible danger from the rear.
    The statement of Mr. Dawson explains in a measure the accident which railroad men were unable to understand yesterday.  Although it has not yet been leaned, it is supposed that the three officials were moving along at about six miles an hour watching the track and bridges and were so interested that they overlooked the possibility of a train coming upon them from the rear.  Otherwise it would have been possible by a sudden burst of speed to have run away from the freight even though it was making thirty miles an hour.
    One prominent railroad man said yesterday that the speeders were only made to kill people with anyhow and a number of men related experiences on the fast substitution for handcars which have so badly frightened them that they prefer walking to using the cars.
    Mr. Dawson has been in several wrecks with the speeders.  Recently he sustained a broken shoulder when he ran into an open switch in the east end yard and some time previously he was in a wreck in the tunnel at Wilcoe.
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    A telephone message to Dr. Hicks [Hix?] at the Miner's Hospital at Welch last night about 9:30 developed the information that Mr. Dawson shows considerable improvement and was conscious and able to talk to his wife and friends.  Mrs. Dawson is with him.
    He stated that the men on the speeder did not know what struck them until they regained consciousness.  They had overlooked the fact that a train was approaching from the rear.  It is said a freight was approaching and the speeder had reduced speed so as to escape falling coal.  This train, it is said, deadened the noise made by the train approaching from the rear.
    Mr. Anderson was driving the speeder when the accident occurred and he was thrown fully forty feet.
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[This article, headlined on the front page, was almost four full columns long, so some details about injuries and non-railroad matters have been omitted here in order to keep the length reasonable.]

Gordon Hamilton
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