September 15, 1896
I ran across this one and I thought I’d post it because I’d never heard about it before, and because it’s such a crazy story. There was a passenger agent for the MKT Railroad (“The Katy”) named William Crush. He had once worked for PT Barnum and was into big time promotional stunts. He once witnessed a train wreck and was fascinated at how people reacted to it – people came from all around to see it. He somehow convinced his bosses that staging an actual train wreck would be a grand spectacle and would attract giant crowds.
Two identical locomotives weighing 35 tons each were painted and polished – one bright red and one bright green and each pulled seven boxcars. One was sponsored by the Oriental Hotel in Dallas and the other by the Ringling Brothers Circus. Crush spent months promoting the event and the Katy offered $2 round trip tickets from anywhere in Texas. He chose a location north of Waco and christened the makeshift town “Crush, Texas”. He picked that spot because the tracks ran through an area where both sides sloped to the middle forming a natural amphitheater. Many big tents were erected to serve as restaurants and bars.
On the day of the event a crowd of of 30-40 thousand assembled. The trains started about 8 miles apart – the engineers tied open the throttles then jumped off their trains and they collided going about 50 MPH.
Apparently no one had done a good job of thinking through what might happen at impact. Both boilers exploded sending thousands of chunks of hot metal into the crowd.
In the front row a photographer went down – a large bolt and washer went straight in his eye and buried in his head. A young boy was killed when a heavy hook at the end of a wrecking chain split his head in two. A man standing right between two women was killed by debris while the women were unharmed. Three died and several hundred more were injured by steam and hot metal. After the initial shock wore off thousands poured over the ruins to collect souvenirs. Crush was immediately fired but was soon rehired when the event ironically accomplished it’s purpose – the news of “The Crash at Crush” made headlines all over the world and The Katy flourished. There must not have been any personal injury lawyers around in those days!
I ran across this one and I thought I’d post it because I’d never heard about it before, and because it’s such a crazy story. There was a passenger agent for the MKT Railroad (“The Katy”) named William Crush. He had once worked for PT Barnum and was into big time promotional stunts. He once witnessed a train wreck and was fascinated at how people reacted to it – people came from all around to see it. He somehow convinced his bosses that staging an actual train wreck would be a grand spectacle and would attract giant crowds.
Two identical locomotives weighing 35 tons each were painted and polished – one bright red and one bright green and each pulled seven boxcars. One was sponsored by the Oriental Hotel in Dallas and the other by the Ringling Brothers Circus. Crush spent months promoting the event and the Katy offered $2 round trip tickets from anywhere in Texas. He chose a location north of Waco and christened the makeshift town “Crush, Texas”. He picked that spot because the tracks ran through an area where both sides sloped to the middle forming a natural amphitheater. Many big tents were erected to serve as restaurants and bars.
On the day of the event a crowd of of 30-40 thousand assembled. The trains started about 8 miles apart – the engineers tied open the throttles then jumped off their trains and they collided going about 50 MPH.
Apparently no one had done a good job of thinking through what might happen at impact. Both boilers exploded sending thousands of chunks of hot metal into the crowd.
In the front row a photographer went down – a large bolt and washer went straight in his eye and buried in his head. A young boy was killed when a heavy hook at the end of a wrecking chain split his head in two. A man standing right between two women was killed by debris while the women were unharmed. Three died and several hundred more were injured by steam and hot metal. After the initial shock wore off thousands poured over the ruins to collect souvenirs. Crush was immediately fired but was soon rehired when the event ironically accomplished it’s purpose – the news of “The Crash at Crush” made headlines all over the world and The Katy flourished. There must not have been any personal injury lawyers around in those days!
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