Thomas-Grady County GaArchives Obituaries.....Dunaway, Carmen Elizabeth May 30, 1920
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Janet Sumner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002510 February 28, 2005, 8:08 pm

Cairo Messenger, June 4, 1920
Train Hits Automobile And Kills Child

As a result of a collision in Thomasville Sunday evening about six thirty 
between a runabout automobile and the outgoing Albany train of the Atlantic 
Coast Line, little Carmen Elizabeth Dunaway, the 3 year old daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. B. Dunaway of Thomasville, was so badly mangled that she died at one 
o'clock Monday afternoon.  Both arms and a foot of the child were completely 
cut off and the child was otherwise horribly mangled.

The accident occurred as the Albany train was leaving Thomasville, shortly 
after six-thirty, Central time.  In the car were Mrs. Dunaway and the child and 
Mrs. L. D. Braswell and child, with Mrs. Braswell driving.  The car was being 
driven down the curve just coming into town from the north and Mrs. Braswell 
failed to see the train until almost on it.  She turned sharply in an effort to 
clear the car of the track, but the pilot of the engine hit the car, dragging 
it for fifty yards, and overturning it down a steep embankment into a ditch.  
The car was completely reversed.

The Dunaway child was thrown between the rails, the train passing over both 
arms and a foot.  Mrs. Dunaway was thrown between the windshield and so 
painfully injured that early reports stated that she would not recover.  Mrs. 
Braswell was overturned with the car, but was not seriously hurt and her child 
fell in the soft mud of the ditch and was unhurt.  The train did not stop.

Parties nearby, among them a number of Cairo people who were coming home, 
rushed to the scene and the little girl and Mrs. Dunaway were immediately taken 
to the hospital.  Doctors operated on the child, removing both arms and 
dressing the foot wound.  The nerve and bravery of the child, although only 
three years old, is said to have been most remarkable.  She regained 
consciousness after reaching the hospital, and apparently feeling no pain 
except her foot, the child readily recognized her father in the room and 
bravely smiled at him, saying "It don't hurt much, Daddy."  It is thought that 
Mrs. Dunaway will recover.

Engineer A. I. Lord, a veteran engineer of the Coast Line and Conductor Lewis, 
were in control of the train.  The fireman was stoking the engine at the time 
the accident occurred and as the car was approaching from the opposite side 
from the engineer, no one on the engine saw the car and the impact of the road 
crossing kept either of them from being attracted to the impact of hitting the 
car.  None of the crew learned of the accident until after they reached 
Albany.  It is said that none of the train crew can in any way be blamed.

The accident has caused much discussion, both here and in Thomasville, as to 
how to alleviate the great danger at the curve crossing where the accident 
occurred.  It, like many other crossings around here, is very dangerous and the 
accident brings before the public the great need of a remedy.

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