Saint Marys Catholic Cemetery, Grant County, Oklahoma

Three brothers killed when car hit by engine.

Leo, Arnold and Howard Baier, sons of Mr. and Mrs William H. Baier, die in crossing mishap.

Three Medford brothers were instantly killed Monday afternnoon when a Rock Island freight engine struck their car at a rural grade crossing a mile north of town.

The brothers, Leo Baier, 19, Arnold Baier, 17, and Howard Baier, 12, were the only children of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Baier, who reside two miles northeast of Medford.

Funeral services were conducted this morning at St. Mary's Catholic Church under the direction of Rev. Edward Voegele, pastor.

Burial was made by Hills Funeral Home in the Calvary Cemetery north of Medford.

All three boys met death instantly in the tragedy, one of the county's worst traffic accidents.

Their car, a 1936 model Ford sedan, was struck at about the rear wheel by the engine which was speeding north on freight train No. 94 time.

The bodies of the two older boys were thrown clear on the wreckage along the right of way while that of the smaller boy was carried with the twisted mass of steel for a third of a mile before the engine could be brought to a halt.

Engineer Ozmun of El Reno, who was in charge of the engine, reported to sheriff W. A. Northcutt that the car, with the 3 boys as the only occupants was seen to leave the pavement which parallels the tracks and turn east toward the crossing.

Then, there was only a flash as the vehicle darted out in the path of the engine. Had the auto gone another yard it would have cleared the onrushing locomotive, sheriff Northcutt said.

The engineer told the sheriff that he had no chance to stop and that the momentum carried the engine as it bore the light vehicle approximately four tenths of a mile.

The brakes on a single engine are far less efficient than those of a complete train, it was explained.

The three boys were on their way home and had reached the crossing which is about three quarters of a mile west of the Baier Home. Leo Baier, who was graduated from the Medford High School last year, had driven in to town to get his brothers, Arnold, a Medford senior, and Howard, a 6th grade pupil.

Sheriff Northcutt said that the vision from the crossing south was fairly clear except that it was obstructed at one point and had a car been slowed down or stopped there it would have been possible for a single engine approaching from the south to have been virtually hidden.

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