Engineers blamed for train wreck
June 17, 1907: A westbound San Bernardino local passenger train hit an eastbound freight train near Downey Road and 26th Street in Hobart, which is now Vernon, injuring 23 passengers and crew, none of them seriously. The Times listed each injured passenger.
Neither train was going more than 20 mph.
“There was no excuse for that wreck,” said a railroad official. “The track is straight for eight miles at Hobart and either engineer should have seen the other train.”
Both engines were badly damaged. So was some cargo.
“Several hundred crates of strawberries were converted into jam in a jiffy,” The Times reported.
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