100 years ago in Spokane: A tragic train crash claimed the lives of two women, and a young survivor tried to piece together what had happened

Two women died and two men were injured when an express train slammed into an auto at the east end of the Northern Pacific yards at Parkwater.

Delbert McClure, 13, one of the survivors, described what he experienced.

“Papa and I were sitting in the front seat and my aunt and mother in the back seat,” he said from the hospital. “I don’t remember what happened, but the train hit us and the next thing I knew I was being cared for by several people. We had some groceries in the back seat of the car.”

His mother and aunt died, and his father was being treated for a broken leg and possible rib fractures and head injuries. He was too dazed to give any coherent account of the accident.

A witness said he saw the head brakeman on a westbound engine “frantically waving his arms.” The brakeman was trying to get the attention of the driver of the McClure auto, because he could see catastrophe approaching. The eastbound train was traveling between 35 and 40 miles per hour, and the driver apparently did not see it.

The witness, a tourist walking in the area, said he turned and waved his arms, imploring the driver to stop.

“But he looked only to the east, and seeing the westbound train, apparently thought that was the one I warning him of,” the witness said. “He did not look to the left, from which direction the express was approaching.”

The McClures had just moved to the Spokane Valley from Montana and were unfamiliar with the area.

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(From onthisday.com)

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