Raleigh, May 19—Six people were killed, one probably fatally injured, and five others less seriously hurt when Seaboard local passenger train No. 44, Hamlet to Raleigh, crashed into an express train standing in the yards at Apex, 16 miles south of Raleigh Sunday afternoon at 4:15 o’clock, driving the baggage car of the local through the forward passenger coach.
The dead are:
Henry Jones, 35, white, Raleigh, news butcher; Georghe Meader, 42, Raleigh, negro, brakeman; Joe Cotton, 40, Raleigh, negro brakeman riding as passenger; Mary Matthews, 45, negress, Merry Oaks.
Two unidentified negroes.
The injured are:
W.H. O’Daniel, engineer on No. 44, Raleigh, skull crushed and internal injuries, not expected to live; Ike Staten, Raleigh, negro brakeman, arm broken and chest crushed; George Cross, Raleigh, engineer, riding on No. 44’s locomotive, bruised; Ed. Porter, baggage master on No. 44, Raleigh, badly bruised; Celia Williams, Raleigh negress, bruised and shocked; George Napier, Hamlett, minor hurts; D.E. Shell, negro, Raleigh, fireman on No. 44, minor hurts.
So badly smashed was the forward passenger coach in which all the fatalities occurred that the last of the dead were not removed immediately and brought to Raleigh hospitals. An operation was performed on Engineer O’Daniel last night, but he is not expected to live.
Responsibility Not Fixed
Responsibility for the wreck had not been fixed late last night. The crash occurred in the territory of the North Carolina division of the Seaboard, of which W.G. Jones is superintendent, with headquarters at Hamlet. The investigation was being made from headquarters and the local division had heard nothing officially this morning.
The southbound express and the northbound passenger train were ordered to meet at Apex.
It was said at the scene of the wreck that there was confusion in the orders as to the point in the yards the passing was to take. The passenger train was running a few minutes late and the express was standing on the main line at the far end of the yard below the station, waiting for the arrival of No. 44.
Running about 25 miles an hour, it was said, the passenger train, in charge of Conductor R.W. Goodwin of Raleigh, and driven by Engineer W.D. O’Daniel, swung around a curve in the road and smashed into the other. O’Daniel, seeing that a crash was unavoidable, jumped, striking his head against a cross tie. He was picked up a few feet behind the train after the wreck, terribly injured. His firemen and other members of the crew riding in the cab, sustained only minor injuries.
Instant Death to Four
The baggage coach went through the first passenger car like a battering ram, splintering it and bringing instant death to six of the eight people riding in the forward end. The brakeman, George Meador, and another brakeman, sitting in the seat beside him, were mashed to a pulp. The fragments of their torn bodies were visible through the crevasses of the walls of the car for hours after the smash.
The locomotives of the two trains were not badly battered. The pilots were smashed in and the front end of both boilers slightly battered. The express train suffered but little, save for the fifth car, a wooden car, sandwiched in between heavy steel cars, which was crumpled up and fell to pieces. The rest of the car was uninjured.
From the front page of the Wilson Times, May 20, 1924
A news butcher was a person who traveled on trains and sold newspapers, sweets and cigars to passengers.
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