On this day one hundred years ago the Royal Palm, a passenger train traveling from Chicago to Jacksonville, Florida, derailed on Southern Railway tracks near New River, Tennessee, north of Harriman.
The train struck a buckled rail, causing the engine and three day coaches to leave the tracks and overturn. Pullman sleeper cars also derailed but remained upright.
The engineer, Hubert J. Miller, and a Pullman conductor, Frank T. Wilson, both from Chattanooga, managed to jump off the train as it derailed, escaping serious injury. Two persons were killed instantly in the crash with four more dying on route to the hospital in Somerset, Kentucky, by special trains sent by the railroad. More than twenty were injured in the accident.
One of the injured, W. H. Perkins, told reporters:
“We were in the second day coach. The passenger who occupied the seat directly in front of me was killed. I don’t know how we escaped. The whole side of the car was smashed in when we hit the ledge. We were sitting on the right side, where most of the passengers were hurt. It was all over, of course, before we realized what had happened. The scene was appalling. I cannot describe it.”
