Found this during a search of Denver and Rio Grande stuff, heading was "Failure to Flag" At first I thought this was staged, and then I took a closer look at the way some of the appendages are bent, and now I'm not so sure.

Ghostdepot.com/rg/images

b.hume@rogers.com

I think its staged, look at the guy on the left, no one who had died or been injured would have his leg in the air like that. Its just not possible for a body to act like that under injury. And none of the other guys are doing anything that would require a broken bone or more than double- jointedness.

I think that it was staged. If it had been an actual collision, the motor car frame would probably have been significantly warped or notably bent. Railroads also tended to avoid showing bodies. With few exceptions, any human remains in a photograph were covered with a sheet/blanket or bagged. You may notice that all but a handful of authentic railroad accident photographs are devoid of human remains.

I have a friend who escaped serious injury in an accident exactly like the one in the staged photograph. In his situation, he was on a motor car with a maintenance crew that had the right to the track. Appearently the dispatcher forgot about the maintenance crew and let a train into the block at track speed. The maintenance crew was on the motor car at the time of the accident but managed to bail off before the collision. Most likely the motor car was a total loss after the incident.

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
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