Railroad Commission 1916 Accident “2 miles south of Avon Park”
A table in the Twentieth Annual Report of the Railroad Commission of the State of Florida (covering the year ending 28 February 1917) lists an accident occurring in 1916 “2 miles south of Avon Park,” marked with the number 179. Exhaustive searches of contemporary newspapers, historical databases, and Florida Railroad Commission texts reveal no further details about this event.
The number “179” likely refers to an internal commission file or docket number rather than a casualty count or financial damage amount, given its tabular placement and the lack of corresponding historical catastrophe accounts. Because the Seaboard Air Line did not reach Avon Park until 1925, this accident occurred on the Atlantic Coast Line’s Haines City branch, which had reached Avon Park in 1912.
Without corroborating press accounts or detailed Railroad Commission dockets, the exact nature of the accident—whether a minor derailment, collision, or crossing incident—remains unknown. Historical accounts of Avon Park from 1916 focus heavily on agricultural development and citrus shipments, with no mention of a major disaster, suggesting the incident was minor and involved no significant fatalities.
Additionally, the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Railroad Commission (covering the year ending 29 February 1916) noted a complaint by E. E. Thompson regarding the lack of toilets at the Avon Park depot, which was subsequently “handled and facilities provided” [1916-frc-report].
References
- 1916-frc-report — Florida Railroad Commission. Nineteenth Annual Report of the Railroad Commission of the State of Florida. 1916. https://archive.org/details/NineteenthAnnualReportOfTheRailroadCommissionOfTheStateOfFlorida
Where this comes from
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Sources
- Florida Railroad Commission, Nineteenth Annual Report of the Railroad Commission of the State of Florida (1916)
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