The Awful Train Wreck: Vestal, New York June 8, 1901

A freight train drawn by two steam locomotives rammed the rear of a stopped train that was carrying a large amount of dynamite in the last car next to the caboose. A huge explosion occurred whose reverberations affected a thirty-mile radius. The dismembered bodies of five trainmen were scattered across the fields of a small farming community of Vestal, New York and were gathered up in peach backets.
The head engineer and the flagman were arrested and charged with manslaughter. Why were they...