Daily AncestorKilled by the cars
Killed by the cars meant killed by a railroad train; in the 1800s and early 1900s the cars was the everyday word for railroad cars.
Car once meant any vehicle running on rails, and the cars meant the train. The phrase shows up in newspaper headlines and in records of accidental deaths.
An 1864 Richmond newspaper item headed Boy killed by the cars told of a teenager who fell while riding on the outside of a train. A 1903 West Virginia headline used the same words for a man killed by a train.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Michl. Dolan, 27, M, W, Brakeman, Killed by the cars
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "Killed by the cars." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/killed-by-the-cars. Last checked 2026-10-10.