The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-04-27
THE VEAZIE ACCIDENT.
Special Report Made by the Rail-
road Commissioners.
THE ACCIDENT CAUSED BY NEG
LECT AND FORGETFULNESS

No Blame Attached to the Train Men or
Station Agents-The Findings of the
Board Detailed at Length.
/ Especial to the PRESS.
/ Augusta, April 26.--The Railroad Com
| missioners have made their report on the
railroad accident which occurred at YeaZie
April 2. The report is as follows.
| serious and fatal accident occurred on
the Maine Central rallr oad near the station
in Veazie. ON the second day of April, 1896,
| at about ten minutes past seven o'clock in
the forenoon, by collision of two passenger
trains. in which James Ward of Bangor. a
| fireman, was killed, and several
passenger and employees seriously injured.
The trains involved in the accident are
scheduled the St. John Daily No. Ga and No.
SO. The latter on the morning, was made
up of three different trains as follows:
Two locomotives Nos. 80 and 2S, baggage
car. smoking car. passenger car. baggage
car, smoking car. passenger car, baggage
| car, smoking car and passenger car, nine
cars in all. and was composed mostly of cars
of the Bangor and Aroostook railroad which
were being hauled as usual to and from
| Oldtown and Bangor by tho Maine Central
Railroad company over its line. Train No.
/ Ga was made up as follows: locomotive No.
"a, baggage car. mail car, two Pullman
| sleeping cars and four passenger CARS, eight
cal S in all. AS both of these trains were
| fortunately running, at the time of the
collision, at slow rate Of speed, the loss of
| life and injury to persons and property was
| Lot SO serious as might otherwise have been
| expected. Neither of these trains, as ap-
pears, were running faster than at u rate Of
| from ten to twelve miles per hour. For that
reason the several engineers and frerEen
were enabled to jump from their locomo-
| tives before the collision occurred, and the
| shock was not severe enough to wreck or
materially injure any of the passengers cars
on either OF the trains, though the mali and
baggage cars on No. GA were wrecked and
the three locomotives badly injured.
INVESTIGATING THE ACCIDENT.
By the provisions of chapter l20 of the
Public Laws Of 1891. it is made the duty of
the board of railroad commissioners. when
eyer serious accident occurs within the
state to any passenger, or freight train.
whether any person be fatally injured or
otherwise. to cause an investigation to he
made forthwith, and immediately after such
Investigation, TO make special report
Eating what it finds TO be the cause of the
accident, etc. The pur pose of an official in
vestigation like the one we are considering,
is two fold: First. to ascertain. if possible,
the nature and cause of the accident, and
at whose door the responsibility lies, in Or
der that the delinquent, may be held to
answer at the bar of public opinion, if not
of the courts; and second. for the purpose
of asce1taining what, If anything. can be
done to prevent an occurrence of such acci-
dents in the future.
| On April 5rd, the day following the aoci-
dent, the board visited the locality of the
disaster and held an investigation at the
police court room in Bangor. at which
| twenty or more witnesses were examined
| The board then adjourned said inyestiga-
tion till Friday, the twelfth day of April
| 1895. to Portland. for the purpose of examin-
| ing certain witnesses who could not be pro-
cured at the first hearing. After a thorough
and careful inquiry the board finds the
facts to be substantially as follows:
STATEMENT OF FACTS.
| The st, John train, No. GA, which. by the
time schedule. should leave Vance boro for
| Bangor at 1880 a. m., on that morning was
| uGIdlueu bncIo bill J-OJ. U6lIS lu6TGlOT6 OuG
hour and twenty-five minutes late in leav-
| ing that point. At Costigan this train re-
| ceived order to cross train Il at Milford,
| which train was met and crossed as per or
der. No other order was received by those
in charge of train No. GA till the collision
occurred at Veazie. AS is customary. when
train No. GA is late, Il special train was sent
to Bangor for the accommodation of such
passengers as might desire to take the train
going west from Bangor at 7.15. For the
| security of this special train a blue flag was
displayed at Oldtown station for time,
which, however. was taken down after the
arrival OF train No. ia. thus permitting
| train No. "a to proceed. At Orono blue and
red flags were displayed till train No. 64
arrived, but were taken down by order from
| the train dispatchers' office in Portland
| These flags as appeared We're displayed for
| the purpose of holding train MOST at Orono
| till after the arrival of train No. 8. at
| Basin Mills, which train had orders to cross
| 64 at that point. 1t also appeared that train
| No. lis, known as the Bar Harbor,' train.
which leaves Bangor at $50 a. m., had or.
ders to cross No. 64 at Exchange street in
| Bangor, and that train No. 93 which leaves
Bangor at 6.45 had orders to cross No. 64 at
| Veazie. These last mentioned trains as an
pears. left Bangor on schedule time. tboueh
train No. 63 was delayed some eight or ten
minutes in the yard near the River switch
in Bangor on account of the Ruoks,ort
train's arrival. Had 1t not been for The
delay aforementioned train No. 93 would
doubtless have arrived at Yeazie in time to
have gotten on the siding there before the
! arrival of No. GA.
| From the testimony taken at the inYesti-
cation it does not appear that there was
any negligence or want of care on the part
of any person in charge of the several
trains above mentioned. nor on the part of
those whose duty it was to receive and
transmit telegraph orders. 1t is clear that
II train No. Ga had been given orders to
| cross train No. at Veazie, or had been
| held at Orono by the display of Tags. the
accident would not have occurred. AS we
have stated, a flag had been Displayed at
the station at Or ono till after the arrival OF
train No. 81 at Basin Mills. when 1t was
taken down by orders from the train dis
patcher's office in Portland. BY the removal
oI This flag, train No. GA was allowed 10 pro-