Freight passenger trains collide near Laclede

The Northern Idaho News of March 31, 1914, reported the following:

“A head-on collision in which two lives were lost and a number of persons were injured occurred on the Great Northern midway between Priest River and Laclede last Wednesday afternoon between No. 44, eastbound, and a westbound freight. From all accounts, it appears that Gus Giese of Hillyard, engineer of the freight, is responsible for the accident. It is claimed that, mistaking his orders, Giese pulled out of Laclede without his conductor, expecting to make Thama, a siding where the collision occurred, before 44 came along. Instead, at Thama, he met No. 44 coming at full speed. He Jumped as he saw what was coming.

“The crash came almost instantly, and without waiting to ascertain the loss, it seems that Giese, whose arm was broken in the jump, immediately started back along the track towards Laclede, meeting his conductor, O. Cartwright, on the way. Cartwright, according to the story, tried to induce Giese to return with him, but could neither do that or get a connected story from him of the accident.

“In the collision, Alonzo Carle of Spokane, engineer on the passenger, who stuck to his post like a hero, was killed, as was also J. F. Decker, of Seattle, a baggageman. Lester Orton, head brakeman of the freight was fatally hurt, his head being fractured and his arm receiving a compound fracture. George Bergen of Hillyard was scalded and bruised on the head and neck. Joseph Sharpe, rear brakeman of the freight, had his side hurt, and F. E. Higgins, national superintendent of lumber camp work for the Presbyterian Church, had his shoulder wrenched and knee bruised. A number of others received minor injuries.”

A relief train was immediately dispatched from Spokane to take the dead and injured, and the passengers, to that city. Giesek (notice the change of spelling) was arrested Sunday at Hillyard “at the instance of Sheriff Remer,” of Bonner County. Deputy Sheriff L.O. Cain of Spokane County was the arresting officer, but without extradition papers in his possession. Gisek at first agreed to return to Bonner County without the papers, but he had reneged by the time a deputy arrived in Spokane to pick him up. He said an attorney hired by “railroad men” had advised him to.

Giesek had been confined in the Laclede hospital for two days immediately following the accident under the care of Dr. R. Allen, and talked freely about it. He insisted it was not his fault.

“We had received orders at Sandpoint to meet No. 44 at the Thama siding at 3:26,” he said. When we stopped at Laclede I had no knowledge that these orders were changed. I got a highball from the rear brakeman when he closed the switch and pulled out for Thama, supposing the conductor was in the way car. I looked at my watch and saw that I could make Thama by 3:26.” (His watch was later found to have stopped at 3:18.)

“I know nothing about the collision,” he said. “There was a crash and the next thing I knew I was picking myself out of the rocks and trying to find a way out of the steam. I thought we must have hit a rock. I went back to the way car and got a hat and coat and then struck out down the track. I was so dazed I hardly knew what I was doing. I had an idea to go off and notify somebody of the accident and supposed I was going back toward Priest River. I met the conductor and found that I was headed for Laclede.”

Giese (that change of spelling again) was still dazed when he reached the hospital and was bruised “from head to foot,” but the first thing he wanted to know was whether anyone had been killed. He was much more concerned about that than he was of his own injured, witnesses said.

The newspaper, reporting from the scene, had this to say. “If the prosecuting attorney’s office is looking for something to do in connection with this accident, it might have some of the people who were plundering the baggage arrested and punished. Two hours after the collision there was a large crowd collected at the scene from Laclede and vicinity, and men, women and children were rummaging in the broken trunks and bags for plunder. It is reported that some parties carried off a whole trunk and its contents. This was all done in broad daylight while there were plenty of railroad employees about who could have put an end to it. Very little of the baggage that had been thrown out of the baggage car need to have been lost.”

Giesek (or Giese) was acquitted of criminal negligence at his trial. A single man, he had been in the employ of the Great Northern since 1906.

Note: Apparently, the third man who was reported to have been fatally hurt in the train collision, survived his injuries.

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