Historic Pinole: 1908 Train Wreck Took Four Lives

This week's Historic Pinole is about a train accident that killed four people and injured three more. It's interesting to note that the Southern Pacific had its own hospital, that one of the victims was described as a "tramp" and that the article boldly states that one of the injured people "will die."

It's an Associated Press article published in the May 22, 1908 edition of the Los Angeles Herald. We post it with the original spelling and punctuation.

FOUR KILLED AND THREE INJURED IN TRAIN WRECK

Baggage Car Jumps Track on Southern Pacific Near Pinole, Derailing Engine and Other Coaches

By Associated Press, OAKLAND, Cal., May 21. — As the result of a train wreck on the Southern Pacific, one mile west of Pinole, last night, three men were killed outright, one died today and three were injured. The dead:

ENGINEER R. K. WARD, Adeline street, Oakland; died today.

J. M. CUMMINGS, express messenger, Portland, Ore.

FIREMAN L. W. COADY, 1765 Chase street, Oakland.

UNIDENTIFIED TRAMP, decapitated in wreck.

The injured:

J F. Hanrahan, extra fireman; will die.

J. W. Birmingham and W. W. Rodehaver, express messengers; injuries not serious.

The injured are at the Southern Pacific hospital in this city. The wreck is supposed to have been caused by the front truck of the baggage car jumping the track and dragging the engine and other cars off the rails. The wreckage was cleared at noon today and the tracks opened for traffic.

This article comes from the California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc. The collection has digitzed more than 400,000 images from newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Images dated between 1846 and 1922 are in the public domain and not subject to copyright.