As Martin Gay anticipated, it was not the Indians that emigrants had to fear most but the hazards of the trail itself. Accidents of various kinds claimed the lives of dozens of travelers each year, and injured even more.

A distressing number of children were hurt or killed on the journey simply because their parents were too occupied with a multitude of tasks to keep a close eye on their young ones. Nearly every emigrant's diary records at least one instance of a child being run over, usually fatally, by one of the heavy wagons. Nicholas Carriger wrote of how "one boy fell and two wheels run over one leg and the other foot and ancle nearly Cutting the leg off." A week later he noted that one of the company "Cut off the thigh of the boy and he...