Ligonier Valley Rail Road Newspaper Articles
We have compiled over 1,400 newspaper articles that mention the Ligonier Valley Railroad, or related subjects. The articles were originally published starting in 1873 and our collection runs through 1995. Enjoy!
Latrobe Bulletin
Friday, January 24, 1913
Fireman Ankney's Widow Sue For $20,000 Damages
Mrs. Myrtle Ankney, the widow of John M. Ankney, a locomotive fireman who was
killed in the Wilpen wreck on the Ligonier Valley road on July 5, last, filed a suit in the prothonotary's office yesterday asking for $20,000 damages for the death of her husband. McCurdy and McConnell are attorneys for the plaintiff. This is the first suit filed against the company for damages by any relatives of the employees who were killed in the wreck.
Ankney was employed by the defendant company as a fireman and died from injuries received in the wreck while he was being brought to the Latrobe hospital. He was fireman on the second engine of the double header coal and coke train which crashed into a passenger train on the Ligonier Valley road. Ankney made an effort to get off his engine when he saw that a collision was inevitable, but fell in front of the tender and both legs were crushed when the wheels passed over him.
Gross negligence in the operation of its railroad is charged by the plaintiff as being the cause of the accident in her statement of the claim. The plaintiff charges that the defendant failed in its duty to her late husband in not providing a reasonable safe place for him to work. It is also charged in the statement of claim the defendant was negligent in not providing safe and properly constructed engines and rolling stock, and a good, safe and sufficient system of signals and orders for the operation of its trains.
That the wreck was caused by the gross negligence of the defendants, its officers,
employees and agents in failing to provide a proper system of orders, signals and equipment, so as to be able to operate its trains with safety, is charged by the plaintiff.