The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1894-02-02
SOUTH SALISBURY COLLISION

lGllOWSulD VIII CAJtItltu Ill buC
ing, and baptism in the evening
SOUTH SHAFTSBURY COLLISION.
INVESTIGATION BY THE BOARD OF RAIL
ROAD COMMISSIONERS.
The State board of railroad commits
siOners, Samuel L. Pingree of Hartford,
Amory Dawson of CrafUsbury and Leon
G. BaQley of Rutland, with Alfred E.
Watson of Hartford, clerk, investigated
the cause of the head collision between
regular passenger tram, No. "a, bound
north, and wreck train extra, No. 8,
bound south, on the morning of the 10th
ult., about mile north of South Shafts
bury.
It will be remembered that William
Smith of Bennington, engineer, AMI E.
j. Matteson of South SALISBURY, brake
man of the wreck tram, sustained iniu-
ries from which they died few hours
after the collision, and that e. Whitman
of Bennington, fireman of the same
train, and H. w. Benson of West Troy
N. Y, express messenger on the passen-
ger train, were badly injured-the acct
dent being directly chargeable to an
error in train orders made by j. II.
Archer, train dispatcher at Bennington
There were no complications involved
in determining the cause of the acct
dent, and testimony was taken simply to
establish in legal form the collateral
facts necessary for basis upon which
the board could predicate a formal re-
port.
The investigation was appointed at
SALISBURY, and there appeared Col. f..
D. Bennett, superintendent, Hon. James
X. Batchelder, attorney, end George II.
Burch, trainmaster, representing the
Bennington and Rutland Railway com
pany; Henry A. Johnson of Eagle
Bridge, n. Y, attorney, representing
the Fitchburg Railroad company: Frank
C. Archibald of Manchester, States at
torney for Bennington county, represent
ing the State, and John Smith, father of
the dead engineer.
The testimony OF p. A. Matteson, sta
ton agent at SALISBURY, was taken, es-
tablishing the fact that he only received
and delivered an order to G. A. Shufelt,
conductor, for extra No. 3 to run to
South SALISBURY to meet No. "a, the
regular passenger tram bound north.
After taking Mr.. MattesOn's testimony
the board and attending parties went to
the scene of the accident on a special
train, provided by the railway company
for the purpose, and examined the
premises, after which they went to
South Salisbury, where the taking of
testimony was concluded.
j. W. Chaplin of Troy, n. Y, conduc-
tor of the passenger train, testified that
his train left North Bennington at 9,3j
a. M, ten minutes late. AT that sta
ton, he received an order directing him
to proceed and meet extra No. 3, at
SALISBURY, and notifying him as pre-
caution that freight train was running
ahead of his train from Salisbury to
Arlington, and he produced the original
of Implicated order. His train con-
sisted of engine, baggage car and two
day coaches, one of which was used as
smoker The train was we'll equipped
with modern appliances, all in good
working order, and was manned by
Fitchburg Railroad company men. His
train stopped at South SALISBURY, leav-
ing there at GAL a. m. When about a
mile north of that station, he first felt
the air-brakes applied with full force.
He grabbed hold of his seat and the
next instant the trains collided. There
were five passengers aboard his train
and five trainmen. none Of whom were
GACOpb LIZ W. bOhoOhi APlNSS AhSo
senger. The baggage car, tender and
front of enGine on his train were
smashed After the collision, he COM
pared his order with that of Conductor
Shufelt of extra No. 8, and saw that the
collision was the fault of the train dis
patcher. He went to South SALISBURY
and reported the accident to Superin-
tendent Bennett and got physician.
Fred Vandervoort, engineer. OF the
passenger train, testified in corrobora-
ton of Conductor Chaplin. He had a
good engine and the brakes worked well
that morning. There was dense fog
through Niger Hollow which pre-
cluded his seeing ahead as far as he
could have otherwise. He first saw eX-
ira No. 3, when it was about so feet
south of curve a little north OF the
place of collision, and his engine was
about 200 feet from it. The speed of
his train was then from 20 to % miles
an hour. He reversed his engine, ap-
piled the air-brakes, warned his firemen
and had just time to jump before the
train collided. He had reduced the
speed of his train to about or 10 miles
per hour when the collision occurred.
If it had not been SO densely foggy along
there, he could have seen extra No. 3
soon enough so that he could have
stopped his train and sounded alarm
whistle to that train, or if that train had
been standing still he could, as 1t was,
have stopped his train before reaching
it, or if they had come together it would
have done no damage. He had one of
the original triplicate copies of the or
der given 20 his conductor at North Ben
nington, which he produced; and after
the collision, he examined Conductor
Shufelt's order and saw who was to
blame for the accident. He helped get
the men in the wreck out of the debris
and into one of the cars. He told En-
gineer Smith, who was barely conscious,
that he was not at all to blame for the
accident, to relieve his mind.