1908 Railroad Collision - Oakland

1908 ¹

1908 headline ¹

On the evening of July 4, 1908, people were returning from the day's celebrations. About 7PM, a local narrow-gauge train crossed the Webster Street Bridge from Alameda to Oakland. At the same time, a train bringing people from Santa Cruz was traveling west on the main line along 1st Street towards the ferry terminal. The trains collided near 1st and Webster, with the locomotive of the Alameda train striking the smoking car of the Santa Cruz train. Seven people were killed, and dozens were injured.

Blame for the accident immediately fell upon the engineer of the Santa Cruz train, Everett J. Barry. The Alameda train had just crossed the bridge, which was followed by a slight downgrade and curve, and so was necessarily going slowly. The Santa Cruz train was behind schedule, and traveling at a higher speed through Oakland than it normally would. The signal was set to give right of way to the Alameda train, but Barry didn't follow it and proceeded into the crossing.

There was a derailing switch set against the Santa Cruz train, but because of insufficient distance from the crossing and the high rate of speed of the train, it didn't come to a stop until after the Alameda train had crashed into it. ¹

Barry was imprisoned, but released in August after a judge ruled that the prosecution hadn't proven its case for manslaughter. ⁵

1903 Sanborn excerpt

Several images on OpenSFHistory show scenes of the cleanup. The tracks crossed near the intersection of 1st and Webster, and Sailors Exchange visible in the background of wnp14.4412 was at the northwest corner c.1900. By 1908, the saloon at 601 Webster belonged to William Sullivan, though obviously the upper sign hadn't been updated. With lots of spectators after the crash, Sullivan's bar ran out of beer. ⁴

OpenSFHistory / wnp14.4412OpenSFHistory / wnp14.4414OpenSFHistory / wnp14.4416