Seventy four people were killed when the northbound Tamiami Champion, an Atlantic Coast Line Railroad passenger train, struck the rear two cars of its southbound counterpart, which had derailed.
[1] The southbound Tamiami Champion, consisting of 18 cars and three locomotives, departed Fayetteville, 20.5 miles (33.0 km) north of Rennert, at 12:25 am, over an hour late.
The enginemen (traveling in the locomotive) became aware of a problem when the emergency brakes were automatically applied and the front part of the train came to a halt nearly 1⁄2 mi (0.80 km) beyond the derailed cars, at about 12:50 am.
The engineer said that soon after the train stopped he instructed the fireman to provide flag protection on the northbound track while he attempted to repair the broken coupling.
Upon seeing the headlight of the approaching northbound Timiami Champion, which had 16 cars and three locomotives and was traveling at 80 mph (130 km/h), he attempted to light a fusee but instead slipped and fell on the icy ballast.