Brakeman Killed on Train, Under the Wheels

Huron, South Dakota, 1909--

MANGLED UNDER CARS

Brakeman Charles Hannigan Killed on the Northwestern Near Huron

Six Cars Passed Over His Body Before the Train Could Be Stopped

His Wife and Three Children Are Living at Henry, South Dakota

Saturday afternoon at a little before three o'clock Brakeman Charles Hanningan fell from the first car of a fast moving freight going south and was mangled to death under the wheels before the train could be stopped. He has been in the employ of the Northwestern railroad here for the past two years, and leaves a wife and three children who are living at Henry.

This is one of the unaccountable casualties that often happen when least expected. The details of the accident may never be known as no one saw the dead man fall from his place on the top of the train. When last seen he was on the head end of this car. In falling he struck the air line and severed it, which set the brakes and stopped the train. It was not until the train crew investigated the cause of the brakes being set that the accident became known. In looking over the train for the break the body of the unfortunate man was found under the sixth car.

Hannigan was braking on an extra freight going south, and this train had proceeded about a mile east of town when it was brought to a sudden stop and the cause of the halt was learned. The body was brought back to the city and taken to the undertaking rooms of August Tams. The left side the head was almost crushed in and the face was badly cut, the left leg was nearly severed at the hip and the left side of the trunk and up under the left arm pit was, likewise, crushed in.

The dead man was probably about 35 years of age and is survived by a wife and three children who live at Henry, S. D., and also by three brothers of the same place. Notification was sent to them soon after the accident occurred.

No blame for the tragedy can be laid at the door of anyone. It was merely one of the many inexplicable fatalities that sadden the lives of the railroad people and all others who know of them.

--Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, August 26, 1909, page 8.