N&W in 1911--Fatality

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 14, 1911

MAN AND WIFE KILLED BY TRAIN AT SWITCHBACK
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Stepped From One Track to Escape From Freight and Got in Front of Big Engine on Other
    Joseph Speree and his wife, Kar?ma* Laba Specee, were struck by a monster Mallet engine at Switchback Sunday morning and instantly killed.  The couple, who  had been walking the track, stepped off the westbound track to escape an oncoming light engine and stepped directly onto the eastbound track on which a freight was approaching them, unknown to either the man or his wife.  The escaping steam from the light engine blurred the view of the oncoming freight on the eastbound track to such an extent that the engineer could not see the people ahead of him and the huge Mallet engine crept on them, cutting both down.  The remains were later on turned over to friends and were accompanied to New York yesterday morning, on train No. 4, where they will be buried.  The man was employed as a miner by the Rolfe Coal and Coke Company.
*Name was indistinct on the microfilm.
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Gordon Hamilton
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