CEDAR COUNTY, NEBRASKA - J.H. McKinstry Meets Serious Accident in the Wynot Yards
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NOTE:  THE WYNOT TRIBUNE CEASED OPERATIONS IN THE LATE 1930s.


Wynot Tribune  February 21, 1908

Brakeman has feet crushed.

J.H. McKinstry Meets Serious Accident in the Wynot Yards

	Wynot’s first railroad accident occurred yesterday afternoon, when 
Brakeman J.H. McKinstry received injured which will ever after deprive him 
of the use of his feet. The 21:30 train had arrived over a half hour late 
and the crew was switching in the yard. The engine had kicked four cars down 
east along the elevator track and McKinstry was riding them down, intending 
to couple them on to an empty box car. After passing the elevator McKinstry 
climbed down the ladder and was walking around on the rods to reach down and 
apply the air brake, when he lost his footing and fell underneath the car. 
The wells passed over his left foot and crushed a portion of his right root, 
and he was turned over and over under the bumpers until all four cars passed 
over him. Section foreman Krikpatrick and his helpers picked up the injured 
man and carried him into the depot , where he was placed on a cot and made 
as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. It was impossible to get 
a doctor here as Dr. Jones is under quarantine and Dr. McKenzie was out in 
the county ten miles. On orders from the superintendent, Conductor Morin and 
Engineer Stewart coupled onto the combination coach and took McKinstry to Sioux 
City. On the way down a doctor was secured at Newcastle and the injured man was 
cared for temporarily. Upon reaching Sioux City, the train was met by an ambulance 
and McKinstry was taken to the Samaritan Hospital. The company surgeon found it 
necessary to amputate the left foot at the ankle and the toes and a portion of the 
right foot was removed.

	McKinstry is a single man and his parents reside in Lincoln. He exhibited 
remarkable fortitude and bravery, laughing, joking on the way to the city, although 
he must have been enduring terrible pain.

	The cars on which McKinstry were riding went on east, bumping the empty box 
off car the open switch.