Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-03-22
The, Coroner's Jury Hold the Rail-
way Company Responsible for
on the Ashtabula Disaster. IfE

CLEVELAND. OHIO. NJ

moi fe- s.-fs CLEVELAND, OHIO, March s.
The Leaders Ashtabula special says the
Coroner's Jury to-day rendered the follow
ing verdict: e a.s-- AsAlsi.aIfls sA5
That the fall of the bridge was the result
of defects and errors made in designing,
constructing and erecting it; that great de-
feet, and one which appears in many parts
of the structure, was the dependence of
every member for its efficient action upon
the probability that all, or nearly AZ, the
Others would retain their position and do the
duty for which they were designed, instead
of giving to each member a positive cOnnec-
ton with the rest, which nothing but
direct rupture could sever. The. mem
bers of each truss Were, instead of being
fastened together, rested one upon the 9TH
er, as illustrated by the following par icu-
lars: The deficient cross-sections of portions
OF the IT, chords and some of the main
braces, and the insufficient strength and bad
arrangement of both the horizontal and Yer-
stical transverse bracing in the construction
OF the angle blocks, as finally modified, with
out sufficient lugs Or ianges to keep the
ends OF the main and counter-braces, from
slipping out of place; in the construction of
the packing and yokes used in binding to-
gether the main and counter-braces at the
points where they crossed each other; in
the shimming of the top chords to COM
pensate the deficient length of some
of their members; in the placing during the
process of erection of thick beams where the
plan required thin ones, and thin ones where
it required thick ones. That the Railway
Company used and continued TO use this
bridge for about eleven years, during all of
which time careful inspection by a compe-
tent bridge engineer could not have failed to
discover all the defects. For the neglect of
such careful inspection the Railway Com
pany is alone responsible; that the re-
sponsibility of this fearful disaster and
its consequent loss of life rests
upon the Railway Company, which,
by its chief executive officer, planned and
erected this bridge; that the cars in which
the deceased passengers were carried into
the chasm were not heated by heating appa-
ratus SO constructed that the fire in them
would be Immediately eXtinguished when
ever the cars were thrown from the track and
overturned; that their failure to comply with
the plain requirements of the law places
the responsibility of the origin of the fire
upon the railway company (see act of May Ia,
1863; that the responsibility for not
putting out the fire at the time it
first made its appearance in the wreck
rests upon those who Were the first to
arrive at the scene of the disaster, and who
seemed to have been SO overwhelmed by the
fearful calamity that they lost all presence
of mind, and failed to use the means at
hand, con nsisting of the steam pump in the
pumping-house and the tire-engine Lake
Shore" and its hose, which might have been
attached to the Steam-pump in time to save
life. The steamer belonging to the Fire De-
partment, and also the Protection" fire
engine, were hauled more than mile through
a binding snowstorm and over roads rem
dered almost impossible by drifted snow,
and arrived on the ground too late to save
human life; but nothing should have pre-
vented the chief engineer from making all
possible efforts to extinguish what fire there
remained For his failure to do this he is
responsible. That the persons deceased
whose bodies were indenttied, and those
identified, came to their deaths by the precip-
itation of the aforesaid cars in which they
were riding into the ciiasm in the valley Of
Ashtabula Creek, left by the falling of the
bridge as aforesaid, and the crushing and
burning of the cars aforesaid, for all of which
the Railway Company is responsible.