Most accounts describing life on the trail indicate that accidents were an ever-present possibility. What kinds of accidents and their related injuries occurred most frequently?
According to Peter D. Olch, being runover by wagon wheels was the most frequent cause of injury/death. With some frequency, both children and adults apparently slipped while getting out of a wagon and fell beneath the wheels. Firearm accidents were the second leading cause of emigrant injury/death, and the third major source was stampeding livestock. Other causes of injury/death include attacks by emigrants on other emigrants, lightning, gunpowder explosion, and suicide. [“Treading the Elephant’s Tail: Medical Problems on the Overland Trails.” Overland Journal, Volume 6, Number 1, 1988. Pp.
