2/13/21
Dog Survives Train Wreck
Dog survives 1911 train wreck without injury in Florida.
Atlantic Coast Line train No. 85 coming from Orlando crashed just north of Kissimmee's Vine Street on November 30, 1911. The hit was described as "a spreading rail" and according to the Kissimmee Valley Gazette, it was "One of the most frightful wrecks of a passenger train ever known in this section..." According to The Orlando Daily Reporter-Star, "Of the seven cars composing the train, six left the track. The Jim Crow (racially segregated) car turned turtle down a 15-foot embankment and several of the occupants were injured." No one died and no one was seriously injured "except Mr. L.C. Royal, the baggage master, who was badly crushed from falling trunks." A dog, described as some sort of setter or spaniel, was riding in the baggage car and made it out unscathed.