Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-08-31
GRAVEL TRAIN KILLING
Inquest on the Remains of John Connell--
Facts as Heretofore Stated In the
"GlObeD

Inquest on the Remains of John Connell--
Facts as Heretofore Stated In the
"Gl0be."
The inquest on the remains of John Connell'
whose death resulted from. injuries received on
the st. Paul d Manitoba road, was held at the
round house at II O'Clock yesterday fore
noon.
At 10 o'clock the coroner, accompanied by
jury, repaired to the residence of the deceased,
ON st. Peter street, where they viewed tn Q re-
mains. DIR. Murphy was present and testified
to the cause of death, which resulted from be-
ing crushed across the bowels.
The jury then repaired to the round house,
where The examination took place. The names
of the jury were as follows: E.. l.. Larpenteur,
j. @. A. Ward, j. p. Leitner, M. Bacon, w. F.
Mason and A. x. Barnum.
W. Stoddart, the foreman of the work, was
first sworn ard testified as follows The train
was made up of gravel cars, ard had twenty
one men on board. In going under the bridge
one of the cars struck frog and was thrown
from the track; it was next to the engine; three
men were thrown out by the shook; James
Mitchell, James Peters and John ConnOll when
the car next to the engine was thrown off the
train came to sudden stop; the train was
stopped by the engineer; witness did not think
the dump cars were particularly dangerous;
there were no men on the car
thrown off; the men were thrown off by
the shock in stopping .the train;
wheel pushed him along and crushed HIM i;
the train only went few inches before it
was stopped; the train was not moving fast /;
there was no particular reason why the car
should have jumped the track; there was
| nothing improper in the construction of the
track; could give no reason why the car
jumped the track.
SO far as could be seen the track and cars were
in good order. Witness could give no theory
why the car flew off the track; it was proper
and natural to stop the carr as soon as pos
| sible; the engineer saw this cas- jumping around
| and stopped the train; the work was being
done under contract and was out of the COM
pany's charge; the contractor had charge of the
work and hired the men; the company fur
nished the train and the train men.s
Henry Gray, one of the brakemen on the
train. testified to having left the train when it
| reached the bridge. Witness had jumped
| from the train when he heard the crash and on
| looking around he saw that car was off the
track; on reaching the frog the car took q
| long groove and was thrown from the track.
| Michael MCCARTHY, laborer. was on the
| construction train at the time of the accident.
Witness knew the deceased. The engine was
pushing the dump cars; the car was jostled and
| thrown off: couldn't say what threw the men
| of the car; could give no reason why 1t hap
pened.
Edward WEIGH, the engineer of the train,
testified as follows: Coming under the bridge
| the Car nexttO the engine STARTED off on a
switch towards the roundhouse; was running
at five or six miles an hour. When witness seen
the car going in the wrong direction witness
reversed the engine and the train came to a
standstill. When car was thrown from the
track it was the duty of the engineer to stop
the train; the train ran the length of the en-
CINE after pulling the valve; couldn't say what
| made the Car go in the wrong direction: could
| give no reason why the accident happened.
| Mr.. Hill, the conductor of the train, testified
that they were engaged in unloading dirt cars;
the train started for the round house and on
reaching the bridge one of the cars jumped the
| frog and took wrong direction. Witness tes-
titled to the position of the cars after the acci.
dent; thought the accident was caused by the
wheel taking the wrong side of the frog, which
resulted from the weight of the train; in tina.
class of cars dump cars) there was more OF
less liability of accident; thought the engineer
done his duty in stopping the train; thought
| it was the sudden stOppage that caused the 40
cident; the frog was perfect.
| James Peterson, a laborer on the train. ha6
seen the accident; was sitting on the end OF Cal
| near Cornell; the train came to q sudden halt
| witness and Cornell we're thrown out; wit
ness went over backward and was knocked in.
sensible; when he came to the train had
| stopped and witness was lying between thu
cars; thought the accident was due to the
shook.
The jury returned verdict of death from
injuries caused by accidentally falling from 8
dump car,