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A Sapulpa railroadman was killed and another Frisco employe narrowly escaped death as a freight train smashed a crew car the two men were operating one mile north of Preston Friday.
W.J. "Bill" Lane, 61, was killed instantly at 1:20 p.m. Friday when struck by a freight engine as A.E. Laxton, 61, jumped from the path of the onrushing locomotive.
Lane, 1145 E. McKinley, and Laxton, 320 S. Linden, were returning to Sapulpa from Okmulgee aboard a light crew car when the fatal accident occurred north of Preston.
"We were going downhill, and I saw smoke around a curve," Laxton said. "By the time we saw the onrushing freight, it was almost upon us."
Laxton said he jumped from the crew car and lifted the front end of the light vehicle from the tracks.
The freight hit Lane when he attempted to lift the rear of the crew car from the tracks, Laxton said.
He was killed instantly.
W.B. Mullins, Frisco agent here, said they are "pretty well on their own."
They have to watch block signals for approaching trains. When the signal lights are red, crew car operators have to clear their vehicles from the tracks.
Laxton said they received no line signals when leaving the Okmulgee yards aboard the crew car.
Laxton and Lane had both been to Muskogee.
Lane had wiorked for Frisco the past 37 years and was a bridge and building inspector at the time of his death.
Laxton has worked for the railroad company for 30 years and is a division inspector of communications.
The two men often worked together and travelled on the same crew car.
Funeral services for Lane have been set for 2 p.m. Monday here in the First Baptist church. Rev. Charles Black will officiate.
Interment will be in the South Heights cemetery, and the Harrison funeral home is in charge of arrangements.
Survivors are the wife, Myrtle, of the home; one son, Charles, and one daughter, Mrs. Willa Mae Cooper, both of Sapulpa.
Also surviving are: three brothers, Leonard and Clayton of Blunt Springs, Ala., and M.K. of Johnson City, Ill.; three sisters, Mrs. Alice Sheile of Foley, Ala., Mrs. Dell Perkins of Bartow, Fla., and Mrs. Ella Scholes of Tuscaloosa, Ala. The mother, Mrs. J.J. Lane of Blunt Springs, and two grandchildren also survive.
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