N&W and VGN in 1911--Hazardous times

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
August 29, 1911

The four items below were from the same issue of the BDT.

IN CITY AND COALFIELD
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Ankle Badly Fractured

    Hugh Aumann, a yardmaster on the Virginian Railway, was brought to this city last night on train 17, suffering from a compound fracture of the left ankle, which was sustained when he stepped off the cab of a freight, only to land in a pile of slag.  It is believed that his ankle was caught between two ties of the rafters of a culvert, as it is unlikely that he could have sustained the severe injuries otherwise.  The accident occurred about 8:30 in the evening and the man was still bleeding when brought to the Bluefield Sanitarium by a doctor.
[Train 17 was a Roanoke - Bluefield local scheduled at Oakvale 8:32 p.m., arriving Bluefield 9:20 p.m. according to a 1910 Official Guide.]
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THE GRAHAM DAILY NEWS
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 Colored Man Killed by Train

    The mangled remains of Gus Thompson, colored, were found on the railway tracks just east of the station yesterday morning.  Thompson was quite an old man, and his mind had been failing for some time, and Saturday night and Sunday he got so bad that his friends kept a close watch over him, until Sunday night, when they locked him in his house and went away.  Some time during the night he climbed from the upper story and wandered to the tracks, where his remains were picked up yesterday morning.
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Hand Badly Mashed

     Robert Austin, employed on the section force, had his hand badly mashed yesterday while unloading pipe at the pumping station.  Dr. Hogan was called and rendered the necessary attention.
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LOSES RIGHT LEG
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Charles McGraw Caught Between Wheels of Freight Train

    Caught beneath the wheels of a freight train Charles McGraw, a laborer, employed by the Boissevain Colliery at Boissevain, lost his right leg last night in the east yard.  It is supposed that he lay alongside the track for nearly an hour after the accident before he was found.
    From the condition of the man when he reached the Bluefield Sanitarium it was believed he would live, although he lost considerable blood.  The flow, however, was partially stopped by the peculiar twist which the wheels gave the flesh on the leg.  Rolled underneath it acted as a tourniquet and prevented a free flow of the life blood.  McGraw has a wife, who it is supposed lives at Boissevain.  His identity was established through two scrip cards he had in his clothes and an accident policy.
[An accident policy?]
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Gordon Hamilton
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