It’s a piece of Michigan History that a good handful of people are familiar with, but for those who aren’t, here are the details.
It happened in the Shiawassee County town of Durand on August 7, 1903. A horrific circus train wreck killed 23 people, two camels and one elephant… and injured many other people and animals.
What could have caused this to happen? The circus company traveled in two trains with a total of 70 cars; the head train was stationary on the tracks when the second train crashed into it at 15 miles per hour. 15 MPH doesn’t sound as if it wasn’t fast enough to cause damage, but it sure did, killing most who were riding in the caboose.
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The engineer of the second train claimed the air brakes didn’t work while the railroad superintendent says the brakes weren’t applied at all, even though the first train had hung a red light in the back to signal them to stop…