The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-28
THE TROLLEY ACCIDENT.
(Continued from First Page.)

NCOLl!IuSu IiOlIl I lISI IdSe.J barns and examined the cars that fig
 ured in the accident He made a note
 of different things about the cars and as result he will make two recommen-
 datlons to the railroad company after
 the investigation is concluded. One of
 the recommendations is that the com
 pany institute some system of signals
 or lights on the different cars running
 on single track lines whereby the con-
 ductOrs will be able to tell whether or
 not there are cars due to follow, after
 one has already passed This system
 has been put in operation on some of
 the lines of the company and probably
 many accidents similar to the one of
 Saturday night may thus have been
 prevented. In the daytime a set of sig
 nals could be used and in the night
 lights such as are used on boats for the
 same purpose as are put on the cars.
 With such precautiOn there would be
 small chance for a repetition of Satur- day nights disaster. This will be the
 first recommendation of the coroner.
 The other will be in regard to the way
 the motorman is enclosed in the vesti-,
 bule cars, In order to prevent reflec- tion of the lights in the car on the win doWs of the glass enclosure and in front
 of the mOtorman curtains are hung up and in the big vestibule cars these cur tainS completely hide the motorman from the passengers.
 If the motorman should be attacked
 with heart disease, or should faint"
 said Coroner Mix, where would the passengers be in a few minutes. He
 might have other troubles that would make, him helpless and the car would
 run along without the passengers know ing that anything was the matter. In this way scores of people might be kill ed and I think that if an arrangement | could be made so that the peeplo on the car could see the mOtOrman, it would | be a great safeguard for the public" He went on to say that he had known
 of cases where. the motorman was stricken and many lives have been lost
 simply because the passengers were not aware that they were in runaway car
 | Another thing that Coroner Mix mo- | ticed at the scene of the accident was 1 the way in which the woods must have hidden the view of one mOtorman from ! the other. He said that he noticed that
 the cars must have been as near as
 twenty-five feet to each other before
 one motorman saw the other and on
 that account there was no chance to
 even slack up the speed of the two cars.
 The suggestion that some of the woods
 which border the track on that curve l be cut away might also be made by the
 coroner, MT. Mix said that the trolley 1 cars as run to-day should be provided with a better system of protection for 1 the patrons of the roads and for that
 reason he was going to make the rec
 concentrations referred to above.
 The accident which startled the com
 munity about here Saturday night took | place on curve about leo yards this
 side of the trap rock quarries in Bran ford, and about a mile westward of 1 Short Beach. Car 145 going toward
 Branford was waiting on a switch a
 few rods west from the scene of the ac- | cidept and was supposed to wait on
 the switch until the car from Branford, | No. 127 due at the switch at 7:1S, had 1 passed. The motorman of car No. 145 | was Joseph Smith of 102 Olive street and the conductor was W. w. Peterkin.
 Car No. 127 was in charge of Conductor
 George J. Hugo and Motorman S. F. | Lindstrom.
 Two extra cars. which were excursion cars, preceded the regular car coming from Branford and it was this that per- 1 plexed the crew of car No. 145. They 1 thought that one of the extra cars was 1 the regular car for which they were waiting and after the extras had passed l the big vestibule car in waiting was l started for Branford. After it left the 1 switch and taken the sIng1e track the 1 power was put on and the car was just
 about to round the long curve at that | point. It had not gone fifty yards when the regular car from Branford hove in sight around the curve and they met with Q great crash. The front of car l No. 145 was smashed to kindling wood
 and Motorman Lindstrom was pinned between the bumper of car 127 and the 1 floor of his car. His legs were crushed and he had to be cut from the wreck l Windows were broken and the vestibule of car No. l27 was wrecked though not | so completely as that of the west bound car Both cars were well filled and l nearly all of the passengers were cut 1 by glass and flying wood. The complete
 list of the dead and injured is as fol- | lows:
 DEAD.
 | Sure I4indstrom. 15 Triton street, mo- 1 torman, both legs crushed. Death fol- ] lowed amputatton at the New Haven
 hospital at about 12:45 yesterday. | INJURED.
 Joseph Smith, motorman, head and ! hands cut.
 Mrs John Kirtland of Colorado, visit ing in East Haven, severely cut and
 shaken up Mrs. Kirtland's took chiI-
 dren, Helen and Howard, were also | slightly injured.
 George J. Hugo, conductor, cut on the 1 head.
 l Miss Churchill, Short Beach, face cut. 1 Miss Jennie Forbes, daughter of Mrs. l Albert Forhes of East Haven, bad cut on head.
 ] Leslie Angus, ten years old, East Ha- ven, cut over eye and on hands and top ] of head.
 l MT. Hallock of New Haven, who is { summering at Short Beach, slight bruises on head
 | John H. Gould, 204 Winthrop avenue, muscular confusion of the shoulder