[1][2][3][4] Team captain and future Indiana governor Harry G. Leslie was initially thought to have died in the accident, but was later revived.

Two special trains operated by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (the "Big Four Railroad") were chartered to carry the Purdue football team and over 1,500 passengers from Lafayette, Indiana, to Indianapolis for the annual Indiana Hoosiers–Purdue Boilermakers football rivalry game.

Owing to a breakdown in communication later attributed to Big Four Chief Dispatcher H. C. Byers in Kankakee, Illinois, Indianapolis general yard master John Q. Hicks, Engineer Smith, and Conductor Acres were not aware of the two approaching specials.

Smith and Acres were pushing their train of coal cars northwest on the main track just as the lead special began rounding the bend at 18th Street.

The body of the second coach car, where members of the marching band and students were seated, was torn from its frame and thrust down the embankment into a gravel pit to the east.

After the impact, the uninjured passengers in the coaches further back wasted little time in coming to the aid of the wounded up ahead.

There was no ambulance, no cars…”[5] As the survivors of the wreck, including Purdue University President Winthrop E. Stone, comforted the injured and dying, others ran back up the track to stop the next special 15 minutes behind, thereby preventing an even greater tragedy.

Sixteen passengers in the first coach of the lead special were killed, with thirteen of the dead identified as members of the Purdue football team.

The coroner determined Big Four Chief Dispatcher H. C. "Bert" Byers in Kankakee, Illinois, was at fault for the accident.

Second, the chief dispatcher could have communicated to any yard or station master along the route that two specials would be associated with the scheduled train departing Lafayette, along with the expected times of their arrival at various locations.

These yard and station masters would have then ordered the tracks under their control to remain clear of other trains at the times the specials were expected to pass.

As a result, Hicks had not notified Smith and Acres about the approaching specials and to remain clear of the main track passing through the yard.

The coroner noted that an Indianapolis ordinance required trains passing through the city to not exceed four miles per hour (6.4 km/h).

Van Winkle, who initiated a separate internal investigation just days after the accident, repeatedly made public statements blaming Shumaker and Johnson for causing the accident by using excessive speed and not maintaining control of their train while passing through the Mill Street rail yard.

Coroner Tutewiler determined, however, that Big Four dispatchers had given Shumaker and Johnson a time table which required them to maintain elevated speeds to remain on schedule.

350 was actually running 10 minutes late, putting additional pressure on Shumaker and Johnson to not fall farther behind schedule.

Although the section of railroad no longer exists, satellite photographs show traces of the rail bed leading to the accident site.

The rail bed crosses the canal via a bridge immediately to the north of West 24th Street and Burdsal Parkway.

Prominent landmarks include IU Methodist Hospital to the east, the Peerless Pump Company to the north, and the Mill Street Substation operated by the Indianapolis Power & Light Company, which is just west of the site of the former Mill Street Power House.

Beyond this point, the rail bed is no longer visible, being covered by the interstate, Senate Boulevard, and the west lawn of IU Health Methodist Hospital.

Newspaper reports also stated much of the wreckage of the lead special's engine and second coach fell into a gravel pit immediately east of the main tracks.

Bodine lived at 1906 Highland Place, which the 1916 map shows as several blocks directly north of the Columbia School Supply facility.

Based on the locations of buildings, landmarks, streets and alleys, and the rail bed seen in the 1916 maps compared to present-day satellite photographs of the same area, the most likely location of the wreck is near the present-day intersection of Senate Boulevard and the west entrance to IU Health Methodist Hospital.