Doodlebug disaster

A Pennsylvania Railroad, gasoline-powered "doodlebug" passenger rail car collided head-on with a freight train; the impact and resulting fire caused the deaths of all but three of the 46 onboard.

[1][2] It had departed Hudson at 5:49 pm on its usual 13-mile (21 km) run south to Akron on a warm summer evening with 46 people aboard.

[4] Within 10 minutes, both had met with disaster; the doodlebug should have pulled into a siding at Silver Lake to allow the freight to pass through the single-track railway section at that point, but instead, it continued southward.

Firemen fought the blaze for 45 minutes, but several hours were needed before the bodies could be removed; most required saws to separate them from the seats to which they had been fused by the flames.

The investigation considered the possibility that the engineer could have been "under the influence of carbon monoxide poisoning with a resultant temporary impairment of mental faculties, but not be wholly unconscious", which would explain his behavior.