The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-08-11
SOME STARTLING TESTIMONY
CHEN AT THE TROLLEY INQUEST
 YESTERDA Y AFTERNOON.

Bridgeport Man Says Tint WiIliar
 Kelly, Who Testified Passenger 0
 the ul-Fated Car, yVns Not Among tn
 Passensors-Many Other Witnesse
 Yesterday.
 Bridgeport, Conn.,, Aug. 1O.-The thir,
 session of the coroner's inquiry into tn
 trolley catastrophe of last Sunday de
 veloped some sensational evidence. Tn
 feature of the inquest was the testimon,
 of an electrical expert to the effect tha
 the electrical equipment of the wrecked
 car had been tempered with since tn,
 accident, and the testimony of another
 witness as to repairs that were made
 near the bridge the morning after the
 disaster. The latter witness exhibited
 some views which he took at the time
 showing the company's men tampins
 dirt along the track at the northern enc
 of the bridge. The coroner and jury
 visited the hospital and took the state.
 ments of three of the injured which
 however, failed to bring out anything
 new as to the cause of the accident.
 Bridgeport, Aug. 10.-The inquest into 1 the cause of the trolley accident on the Shelton Street Railway last Sunday | was continued here this morning. George E. Hawes, superintendent of the Birdseye, Somers X company cor set factory, testified that no Monday morning he visited the scene of the, ac- cident, arriving there at o'clock and remaining nearly an hour. At that time large number of men Were engaged in filling in and tamping with dirt the ties bearing the rails on the eastern approach at the south end of the bridge. The men were divided into two gangs, one of which worked about ten feet from the south end of the bridge and the other 150 feet further on.
 During the hour which he remained on the scene, said MT. Hawes, two car loads of earth were brought up, dump ed, and tamped beneath and around the ties. Witness produced photographs which he had made as the work pro- gressed, and which he offered to the jury as evidence. He said that the pho- tographs were taken merely out of curi- osity. Since they were made, however, he had seen articles in the newspapers to the effect that little or nothing in the way of repairs on the approach had been done between the time the acci- dent occurred and when the approach was viewed by the coroner's jury. He then decided, in order that the jury might have all the real facts in the case to appear before the members, tell what he knew of the conditions, and offer the photographs in corroboration of his testimony.
 G. B. UNDERWOOD.
 G. B. Underwood of New Haven, an expert electrician who, at the request of Coroner Doten, had examined the contact-box on the front end of the wrecked car, testified that he found the door of the contact-box partly opened. The condition of the box indicated that it had been opened with a screw driver, ol a similar implement as the bolts all were unbroken and in place, which hardly would be the case had the fall from the bridge broken the box, thus causing it to open. An examination of the interior of the box disclosed the fact that two or three of the contact fingers were missing. rendering the re- useless. In every other way the box was in good condition. The power was turned completely off but there was no evidence that the power had been reversed.
 MT. Underwood also examined the rail on the bridge at the point, which the car had pushed over just previous to topping off into the pond-bed. He said that if the power had not been fully off at that time an electric arc would have been formed between the motor and the rail. Evidence of this arc would have on the rail had it existed, in the form of black stain. The stain not being found he was certain that the power had been fully turned off before that point was reached. Recess was taken at this point.
 STARTLING STATEMENT.
 At the afternoon session Patrick Clark | If Bridgeport came forward and re- 1uested that he be allowed to go on the | stand to make statement. The re- luest was granted Clark was sworn md proceeded to tell his story. He said hat on Sunday afternoon, at the time il carriage driving across the highway bridge, almost directly under the place where the car fell He also could pro- luce two or three other men, eye wit lesses of the accident, who as yet have aken no part in the inquest. One of hese men, he said, was Nelson Hatch if Stratford.
 Clark said that after having read in he papers last evening the statement f William Kelly of Bridgeport, who efore the plunge was made, had mo- iced that the car was not running rap lily, testified that the motorman did all n his power to stop the car in time to revent an accident and finally that by
 sudden swerve of the car he was brown from the side, over the bridge nd into the mud in the flats below, he bought that the time had arrived for i'm to make a statement.
 At the time when the car came down from the bridge" said IF. Clark, "I saw William Kelly sit ng in a carriage on the highway ridge. As soon as the car struck the arth Kelly jumped out and rushed to ne spot and attempted to aid those in eed.
 Kelly" said MT Clark, twas not on le car at any time, and the mud which e claimed to have got on his clothing y falling in the mud in the pond bed