Omaha daily bee., 1889-01-23
DEATH ON THE ROAD.
A Serious Accident at the Twentieth
Street Crossing,

A wreck occurred at the intersection Of
Twentieth street, on the Union Pacific, about
Z O'Clock yesterday morning, resulting in the
death of John Connors, the s~haking-up of
passengers, and the wrecking of one coach,
an engine and seven freight cars. The train
known as the "work %train,n which conveys
the employees of the ~stockyards and packing
houses to South Omaha each morning, started
out on ITS usual trip in charge of Conductor
Wright and Engineer Stevenson. At the
crossing of Twentieth street the train
stopped to take passengers. Shortly after
it left the Union Pacific depot, freight train
No. %, drawn by two engines ana bound for
Columbus, pulled out. 1t was in charge of
Conductor George Bull, while Engineers
John Shea and Doolittlc guided the engines.
shea was the engineer assigned
to the train and D%oolittle was in the lead,
helping him over the grade at summit. AT
the time of the accident an intense fog pre-
vailed and it was impossible for the engineer
to ascertain the condition OF the track any
great distance ahead. Blu to make matters
more complicated the dummy train APP
preached from an opposite direction, passing
the freight train within a short distance
from the scene of the wreck. The steam
from the dummy engine curlcd over the
main track in heavy volumes, making 1t inn
possible 10 discern an object, IL is stated, ten
feet In advance of the moving train, As the
steam cleared away Engineer DOolittle was
confronted with the rear end of the work
train but n few yards III advance of
him He sounded an alarm and en-
deavored TO check the train, but without sue
cess and his engine crashed with great force
into the rear coach, which was crowded
with passengers. The latter were badly
shaken up, but escaped without any serious
injury. The forward coach of the work
train was forced upon the tender of the
engine.
ull, r,,,1,t,. ,n,,,1t1 C,@,, a aqua, 1A,.t
expected. John Common was head brakes
man of the freight train, and, as is the
custom, took up quarters in the cab along
with Engineer Shea. He was standing in
the gang-way of the engine, between the
locomotive proper and the tender, and when
the two objects came together he was
caught between the edge of the tender and
that of the cab, and crushed so badly that he
died within twenty minutes.
COnnOrS was a man about thirty-ninc years
of age and leaves a widow and five children
in London, Canada. He came here last Au-
gust and was given odd JOBS brating in
view of his financial condition, and was on n
special trip at the time of his death.
Coroner DreXel was notified and took
charge of the remains. They will be for
warded to Canada for intcrment. COnnors'
family is said to be in destitute circum-
stances.
An inquest over the remains of Connors
was held at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
Ihe jury returned a verdict to the effect that
his death WAS caused by the irregularities of
running trains.
Several railroad engineers and fircmen
were before the jury as witnesses, and the
testimony adduced showed that there was
carelessncss and negligence on the part of
the management in dispatChing its trains.
The most important witness was John
c.. Shechy, engineer of the locomotive of the
freight which Collided with the "butcher's'
train. Sheehy described the circumstances
of Connor's death. He heard a moan from
the man, and upon looking around
discovered what had happened. He
Immediately reversed the engine and
backed up in such a manner that
the body fell to the roadbed. The wit
ness stated that it was customary for brake
men to ride in the cab while going up the
hill, especially in cold weather. According
to his testimony the butchers" train for
South Omaha ran hap-haz2ard and no special
time card was made out for il. The train
upon which the witness is engineer was
twenty minutes late, Sheehy said. He made
the assertion that whenever he went out on
the track to make n run he was supposed to
watch out for other trains as his freight had
no rights and was run only when the track
was not occupied by others. For this reason
his train was never off on time, and on ac-
count of being late and for the reason that he
did not know the time that the butchers
left, the collision occurred.