The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-09-21
TRACKS BADLY LIGHTED.
A CENSURE FOR THE CENTRAL
RAILROAD COMPANY.


The Jury That Heard Evidence as to the
Death of John Crotty Recommends
More Lamps for the Communipaw
Station.
In one of the most dingy and dismal
rooms in Bergen Hail. Coroner O'Hara
held an inquest last evening into the
cause of the death of John Crotty. The
deceased was found dead and mangled
near the Clairmont station early on the
morning of September 16, and was sup
posed to have been killed by a Central
Railroad train.
While awaiting the arrival of the hand
some Coroner, of whom Hoboken Is SO
their friends enjoyed themselves
hugely over q game of euchre as
they puffed on their clay pipes or
squirted tobacco juice over the floor.
These pleasant proceedings were by no
means confined to the card players, for
nearly two score of others aided in giving
the room the appearance of Johnstown
after the flood, supposing that the big
lake had held nothing but tobacco juice,
and if that room is ever to be habitable
again, the odor of those pipes will have
to be broken up with a pickaxe and
carried away on q cart.
Coroner O'Hara and his clerk carefully
picked their way through the room to the
table that had been assigned them; and,
after a sigh from the Coroner that ex-
pressed much, the jury were sworn, and
Constable Wise produced the first wit
ness.
UNDER THE WHEELS.
He was Charles Koch. of No. 295 Grand
street, and was conductor Of the freight
train that passed Clairmont station at
about midnight, drawn by Engine No. 4.
He said that after drilling some cars out
of the Clairmont yard his train started to
back them to Jersey City When passing
under the Clairmont bridge the three men
on the end car were compelled to stoop
very low, and before they could stand
erect again he felt the car pass over some
thing that seemed to be stick. He did
not think it was u man at the time, but
he looked up and down the tracks to see
what it was, but it was too dark to dis
cover anything.
When the train had backed to Jersey
City he was told that man had been
run over at the Communipaw
station, which is very near the
bridge, and to go back and see
what was the matter. He cut loose from
the train and returned on the engine. He
found the body of a man near the station
lying on the tracks. Both legs were ly-
ing across the rails of the ca st bound
freight tracks. The body was taken to
the depot by policeman. He testified
further that after eight p. m. the only
person regularly about the station on
duty was trackman.
DIR. Converse testified that on Septem-
ber 16 he examined the deceased at Speer's
Morgue and found three scalp wounds,
fracture of the collar bone and lacerated
wounds on the left forearm. There were
also abrasions of the skin of the face,
back and right thigh near the hip joint.
Both legs were crushed from the knee to
ho MI In tho nf
having been passed over by heavy wheels
like those of railroad train. The left
foot was completely separated from
the body, and was carried
to the morgue in two parts. These in
juries to the legs must have caused death.
The doctor did not know whether the
wounds on the head had rendered the
man unconscious and thought that they
might have been caused by the body
having been dragged some distance.
TOO MUCH BEER AT A PARTY.
Edward Nichols, of No. 230 First street,
Elizabethport, a coal trimmer and fellow
workman of Crotty, testified that the first
he heard of Crotty's death was Sunday,
while he was in bed. He said that he, the
deceased and James Hanley visited a
private house in Lafayette to attend
party on Saturday and that the last he
saw Of Crotty he was asleep at the
station. The three men were waiting for
u IL.
know when Hanley left them. He said
he was so drunk that he could not re-
member how he got home. They had
had keg of beer at their party.
John Murphy and George w. Franklin,
brakemen on the train, corroborated the
conductors evidence, and George McCaig,
another brakeman, did the same.
Owen Horohan, a trackman, testified
that after eight p. m. there is no one in
charge of the station at Communipaw;
| that ON the night in question he saw no
| one sleeping about the station, and did
| not see Crotty at all. In the morning he
found portion of his leg an eighth of u
| mile down the track, and he took it to
| the station.
| George w. Ross, the engineer, stated to
| the Coroner the same facts testified to by
1 others, and added that some trains pas
| sed that station ut the rate of a
mile minute, but that his freight train
| at the time of the accident was not going
! faster than five miles an no ur.
| John Murtha, who calls the engineers
| in the morning, testified that he was pres
ent when the body was discovered and
at once notified the foreman of the round
house, who had the remains moved to
! Speer's Morgue.
The jury returned a verdict of acci-
dental death, but included censure of
the railroad company for not having suffi-
cient light about the Communipaw
station at night
KILLED BY A DRILL ENGINE.