Severy Crash

[W. Gray]

Here is a repeat of a post I made in 2006:

In 1946, a Howard Branch freight train pulled by a steam engine just coming north from Howard and Fiat had passed through Severy and was nearing K-96 (now US 400). The Howard Branch grade level crossing of K-96 would have been a couple hundred feet east of where K-99 heads north to Eureka from US 400.

A driver was barreling down K-96 at a high rate of speed and apparently did not hear or see the steam engine.

The fast moving automobile slammed into a boxcar behind the tender. The impact derailed the boxcar and the momentum of the boxcar took the rest of the train's twelve cars off the track. Only the engine and tender stayed put.

The crash killed all three people in the car.