Worst Train Wreck in Lawrenceville's History, 1945

Two Killed and Six Injured in Worst Train Wreck in the History of Lawrenceville November 10, 1945

The most disastrous train wreck in the history of Lawrenceville took the lives of two men, injured six others, and caused damages to the track and rolling stock of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway Company estimated at more than a third of a million dollars. 

The dead were William Barnett, 26, of Zionsville, Indiana, a driver for the Girton Brothers Trucking Company of Brazil Indiana and O E Bruce of Washington Indiana locomotive engineer. The injured were Claude A Reed, Vincennes, locomotive engineer; William E Emmick Washington, Indiana fireman; Charles Montgomery and John E Johnson both of Washington D C, dining car cooks; Walter L Page, member of the US Army and a passenger on the train. William S Emmick, the fireman on the train was in critical condition the Good Samaritan Hospital the other five were not seriously injured.

The accident that brought about the death and destruction was caused when a large gasoline transport truck loaded with 4000 gallons of gasoline, driven by William Barnett was struck by the second section of the eastbound National Limited, about 12:20 Saturday afternoon.

The train, a doubleheader, struck the truck as it pulled onto the track at the Twelfth Street crossing, burst the big gasoline tank and caused an explosion that shook the neighborhood.  The ignition of the spraying gasoline fired the entire train as it continued for a distance of about a thousand feet, stopping after both engines, were completely wrecked, and the entire train derailed. 

The body of Barnett, the truck driver, badly mangled and burned was found lodged on the pilot of the first engine. The injured trainmen were taken from the cabs of their overturned engines and rushed to the hospital in Vincennes. The member of the U S Army was taken to the George Field Hospital.

The train was traveling at a speed estimated at from 80-90 miles per hour and was not scheduled to stop at Lawrenceville.  E P Weger, gateman at the Texas Company plant stated that Mr. Barnett checked through the gate with 4000 gallons of gasoline at 12:18.  Leaving the gate he drove west to Twelfth Street, a distance of two short blocks, and then turned north directly onto the B & O tracks.  A box car sitting on the siding obscured his view of the approaching train.  However, the railroad company maintained a warning light at Twelfth Street as well as one at the railroad crossing, thus giving a double safety guard for those leaving the refinery from the Main Gate.

After striking the truck, the train traveled almost its length before the wreckage from the heavy truck derailed the first engine.  Leaving the rails the two engines plowed up the track for another length of the passenger train, twisting rails and breaking heavy ties into kindling wood.  The first engine remained horizontal, the second locomotive turning over on its side to be telescoped by the first baggage car of the train.  The second baggage and mail car was shoved from the tracks yet remained in an upright position.  All the passenger cars and the diner remained upright and maintained their position following the engines, yet their wheels had buried themselves in the roadbed. 

The train of four coaches, a diner, three baggage and express cars, pulled by two locomotives was heavily loaded, the passenger list being practically all service men.  Although only those named were seriously injured, all the people on the train were considerably shaken.  The dining car, containing 28 passengers and trainmen at the time of the wreck, was in a worse condition than any of the other cars used by passengers, being almost completely demolished.

Track workers were on the job within the hour following the wreck and within a short time were bypassing the trains over one of the sidetracks.  By Sunday morning the main track had been replaced, and trains were making their regular runs over it, although moving slowly until the roadbed was settled.

The leaping flames from the burning transport truck, which spread to a railway tool house and a box car, sitting nearby, caused some concern until the fire departments from Lawrenceville and the refinery brought the flames under control.

William Barnett, the dead truck driver, a resident of Zionsville, was a new man with Girton Brothers and was making his first trip Lawrenceville for gasoline. He was recently given his honorable discharge from the army after more than four years of service.  He was 26 years old and married.