Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-18
The Tunnel Collision.

Arguments Heard by the Commissioner i'm th1s City Yesterday.
 There was b meeting of the railroad com ! missioners yesterday morning at the office oi
 President Watrous to hear arguments in the matter of the recent tunnel disaster at Hart ford, where the testimony had been taken. Although Commissioner Woodruff was sick
 in bed at Litchfeld it was decided to proceed
 without him. On one side the counsel were
 s. B. Baldwin and Bolles, and for the Con-
 solidated road President Watrous and Judge
 Henney of Hartford. Maps were. produced
 showing the scene of the accident with the
 streets in the vicinity.
 The first argument was made by Simeon E. Baldwin He said there was so much con- ficting testimony in regard to the accident that there was no doubt but that some one had been lying. When the New England train was going six miles an hour, and the Consolidated train forty miles an hour, there would naturally be conflicting testimony as to time. Four witnesses had testified that the signal Topped on the New England road before the crossing was reached.
 Judge Renney, in his argument, remarked that the commissioners had to deal with the testimony as do courts and take undisputed facts. There can be no dispute that the Consolidated roads train came on to the frog properly and that the New England train came on to the frogs improperly because the signal was set against them. This made it necessary for the New England people to ex- plain.
 President Watrous said there was no doubt about the fact that a collision had occurred: the controversy was as to who or what had caused 1t. That cause must have been the fault of S0mabOdv No ona claims that the New Haven road train men were at fault The Consoli- dated train was at the frog at exactly the time for the New England east bound train to leave the station. This demonstrates the fact that the Consolidated train should pass first. Concluding MT. Watrous asked the commissioners to find out beyond all doubt who was guilty. He would also like to find whether their signal system was good enough and whether the time table of the New England road should not provide for slowing at the junction as do the Consolidated roads time tables. The New England road had aI- ways allowed that the Consolidated road had priority at the junction until the formation of the New England new company. He hoped the commissioners would find which road had priority there, as it always used to have. If there is confusion there, the con- missioners should now settle it. The New England time tables do not show any order to run less than fifty miles an hour at this crossing, while the train men were all or- dered by the Consolidated road to move at five miles an hour
 MT. Baldwin said that MT. Felton had fre- quently requested inter locking signals at this crossing, and he would ask the commis- sioners to order them. lively brush be- tween the two lawyers followed after which Mir. Baldwin reviewed the argument of Mir. Watrous at length, and then the hearing ad- iourned. Yesterday afternoon the railroad signed an order of notice for s. B. Baldwin that certain parties in Bridge port were on the 28th to appear in New Haven and be heard on the Hartford and Harlem layout