A Disobeyed Siding Order: Great Northern No. 4 Burns at Lind
The Seattle-bound passenger train due through Newport was struck head-on by a Northern Pacific helper engine at Lind, Washington. The engineer and a mail clerk were killed, the equipment burned to the frames, and the road's flood-shut main line was only just reopening.
Second No. 4, due through Newport last night, was wrecked at Lind, Wash., at 12:30 a.m., while coming over the N. P. tracks. The train was run into by an N. P. engine, head on, and the entire equipment was burned up. The engineer of the helper had orders to hold his engine on a siding, but disobeyed and ran into the passenger. The engineer of the helper and a mail clerk were killed, and it is reported that there may be many casualties among the passengers.
The Great Northern main line between Spokane and Seattle, which has been out of commission on account of landslides and floods, was re-opened for traffic this afternoon.
“The engineer of the helper had orders to hold his engine on a siding, but disobeyed and ran into the passenger.”
Lind is still a wheat town on the same rail corridor that carried Great Northern and Northern Pacific trains through Adams County, and the line is still the reason the town exists. In 1909 a single engineer ignoring a siding order could incinerate a passenger train within minutes; modern derailment and collision investigations still usually land on the same human decisions at a switch.
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