DEATH-ROLL OF 25

Southland Times, Issue 23897, 16 August 1939, Page 5

DEATH-ROLL OF 25

TRAIN DISASTER IN NEVADA EARLESS MAN RELEASED AFTER QUESTIONING (Received August 15, 8.40 p.m.) RENO, August 14. The death-roll in the disaster to the express train City of San Francisco, which crashed from a bridge in the Nevada mountains yesterday, has reached 25. The railway police arrested an earless man who was seen peering from the walls of the canyon after the derailment. Later a Government agent secured the man’s release, announcing that the police were convinced, after intensive questioning, that he was not invo.ved in the act of sabotage which caused the tragedy. The object of the sabotage is believed to be loot from the dead and injured. The identity of the Australian who was seriously injured in the wreck has been established as Mrs Violet Tomlin, of Melbourne. The earless .man was taken off a goods train near Reno and removed to police headquarters where, however, he insisted that he had not been in eastern Nevada recently, although police officials said that he was bitter against the Southern ■ Pacific Railway, alleging that he had lost a foot and his ears in a railway accident some years before. He gave his name as Bob Laduceur, aged 28 years. Interviewed by a representative of the United Press of America, Mrs Tomlin, who is in hospital at Elko (Nevada) with three broken ribs, said: “In spite of the horror it was not bad, considering how lucky some of us were.”

Mrs Tomlin explained that she was in the outer berth of a bedroom car which was smashed. Her husband, Mr L. B. Tomlin, was in the adjoining berth, but he was only slightly hurt when he was hit by falling golf clubs from the rack. Mrs Tomlin said that her husband was worried about his business, having missed the Lurline from Honolulu, but she said: “His business would not be any good if he were not alive.” She said that it was unpleasant on the way to the hospital from the accident. A man who died later kept asking for water, then said: “I guess I am going to live.” Five minutes later he was still.