Fred Searles is Fatally Hurt on Railroad

Died After Work Car and Switch Engine Collided

Fred W. Searles, 53, who was injured yesterday at Oswego in a collision between a D.L.&W. switch engine and a gasoline-operated work car in a cut-off tunnel, died at 5:20 o’clock this morning in the Oswego Hospital.

Hospital officials said the railroad foreman suffered chest and internal injuries in addition to a possible skull fracture.  The body will be transferred to the G.H. Scholderer Funeral Home, 269 Chenango Street.

Mr. Searles, general foreman with the bridge building department of the Scranton Division, was one of nine men hospitalized with injuries after the collision in the tunnel through which coal is shipped to Canadian points.  He was one of two men reported critically injured. Among those less seriously hurt was Walter Vanderkarr, 39, of Waverly.

Survivors include a daughter, Mrs. Frank Gay of this city, and two sons, William and Albert of the U.S. Army.  The funeral home was notified of the death by a sister, telephoning from Oswego.  Mrs. Searles died in 1935.

The Associated Press reported that the accident happened about noon when the nine men on the “speeder” were returning from the West Harbor coal docks along the spur line to their lunch car. The crash was on a curve and both machines were travelling slowly.  The collision was about 200 feet inside the tunnel which is about one-eighth of a mile long.

Employed by the railroad about 35 years, Mr. Searles had been general foremen 12 years.

Source:  Binghamton Press, December 8, 1943.