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Newspaper Index Isabella Pool Index Isabella Pool - Article - 29th September 1897 Fatal Railway Accident Near Annan Yesterday forenoon a young woman was decapitated on the Solway Junction Railway at Benson's Bridge, one and a half miles north of Annan. A goods train, known as the "quarry train", was coming from Kirtlebridge shortly after eleven, the engine running with the tender first, and the steam being shut off on account of the gradient. The line assumes a curve from Corsehill to Annan, but near Benson's Bridge there is a straight of about a hundred yards, and it was on nearing this bridge that a Surfaceman on the guard's van saw a woman emerge from the shadow on the far side of the bridge and step on to the railway. The train was upon her immediately, and the Surfaceman, thinking there might be some slight hope of the girl having crossed the railway, ran to the other side of the van, but all he saw was the severed head. The body was dragged for about twenty yards along the four-foot way, where it lay, the left leg being broken. The driver of the train did not know of the accident until he was told by the guard at Annan. Mr. Fraser. the station master, was at once notified of the fact, and he immediately repaired to the scene of the accident along with several of the employees. The remains were taken to Annan Police Station, where they were identified about four o'clock by Mr. William Pool, foreman roadman, as those of his daughter Isabella, aged nineteen years. It appears that the girl had been gathering brambles and working in the fields with her mother, and about eleven she was sent over to the house with the key to make the dinner. When the mother went home she found the door open, but her daughter was nowhere to be found, and it was several hours before they heard of the accident. It is not known what took the girl to Benson's Bridge, as she had not to cross the line on the way home from the place where she was working. Even had the engine driver seen the girl, it would have been impossible for him to have averted the catastrophe, the girl being hidden from view by the bridge and just stepping forward as the train was passing through the bridge. |
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Copyright © 2001 The Pool(e) Family Scottish Database
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