On September 15 , 1896 , two locomotive engine traveling at speed upward of 50 miles per hour smashed into each other in Crush , Texas — completely on purpose — shoot down two hoi polloi and seriously injure at least six others .
The intentional collision was thebrainchildof William George Crush , the general rider agent of the Missouri - Kansas - Texas Railroad andfriendof P.T. Barnum . Though watching the spectacle was technically free , there were plenty of other ways for Crush and enterprising entrepreneurs to make money off of the hand . First of all , the M - K - T charge $ 2 for every orotund - trip railroad train ticket to the spectacle web site . A eating house serve people from beneath a Ringling Brothers tent ; other diversionsincludeda Battle of Midway , cigar tolerate , and medicine shows .
When it came down to the primary event , two string crews got the 35 - gross ton locomotives started , then start the accelerator , tied the whistle cords down , and jump off , leaving the massive six - car gearing to ruin into each other . As you might suspect , there were repercussions to cause a purposeful collision of two large locomotives . Although car-mechanic hadassuredthe labor organizer otherwise , the steam kettle on each train break loose on impingement .
The good time was prompt and pernicious . The 40,000 spectators had beenrequiredto observe the hit from a mound 200 yards away , but they were n’t safe from the flying wood and smoothing iron debris . A 10 - Irish punt section of bracken chain stumble a teenager named Ernest Darnell directly in the head , almost splitting it in two . A untried girl was coin by a chunk of iron that fractured her skull ; she died on the way home . And prescribed event lensman Jarvis Deane learn a bolt to the eye . Miraculously , he did n’t die — andreportedlyeven suffer up and instructed his photographer brothers to take photos of the wake .
Despite the slaughter , the result was considered a achiever . Crush was fired immediately after the consequence , but after the promotion ( and sale receipts ) began to roll in , he wasrehired . Train hit became main events atstatefairsacross the country , and Scott Joplin write the “ Great Crush Collision March . ”
Crush , Texas , no longer live today — it was take for a town just for the purposes of hosting the event — but you may see the site , memorialized by amarkerin what is now the town of West , Texas .
