Crash at Crush - TX, US
N 31° 44.699 W 097° 05.993
14R E 679986 N 3513739
Located along the Katy line, about 14 miles north of Waco and three miles south of the town of West. A tragic miscalculation resulted in two people death and at least six other people were seriously injured by flyi
Waymark Code: WMTH86
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 11/25/2016
Views: 5
George Crush, general passenger agent of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (popularly known as the Katy), conceived the idea to demonstrate a train wreck as a spectacle.40,000 people showed up on September 15, 1896, making the new town of Crush, Texas, temporarily the second-largest city in the state.
Crush and his team had made a tragic miscalculation. In head-on collisions, engines typically rose together in an inverted V, while the cars behind crumpled, accordionlike. This time, for whatever reasons, the two engines instead telescoped together. Their boilers exploded at once, sending “flying missiles of iron and steel, varying in size from a postage stamp to half a driving wheel.”
The “black clouds of death-dealing iron hail” claimed several victims. A 10-pound section of brake chain nearly cleaved teenager Ernest Darnell’s head in two, killing him. Another chunk of iron hit local farmer John Overstreet’s daughter, fracturing her skull; though reports had the girl “resting easy 30 minutes later,” she died on the ride home. A flying bolt end knocked Waco photographer Jervis C. Deane from the press platform, ripping through his right eye and lodging in his brain.
Within hours, the Katy cranes had removed the larger debris and souvenir seekers took care of the rest. Crush which that afternoon had been the second largest city in Texas was fully depopulated by midnight.
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