The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-29


broken.
GEORGE CHANDLER, Plainfield, spine
injured.
CHARLES LoNGwoRTHY. Plainheld.
injured on body.
MRS. BELEH. Plainheld legs broken and
body injured.
MARY RYAN, Plainfield, injured about
head.
WILLIAM VAN vENTER. Plainfield. cut
about face and body.
EVERETT REIGHTON, Plainfeld. both
legs cut off.
MISS LIZZIE KELLEY, Plainfield, scalp
torn off.
PERCY IRVING. Dunellen. legs crushed
MRS. QUELEAN. Plainfield, injured
about body and head.
JAMES F. CLARK, Philadelphia, serious
ly hurt about head and body.
RICHARD CLARK, Plainfield. both legs
broken.
WILLIAM SAMPSON. Plainfield, cut and
bruised about the body.
WILSON FREDERICK, Dunellen. scalded
about the body.
MISS LIZZIE CUTTER, Plainfield, face
cut.
WILLIAM DUNN, Plainfield, right leg
broken. face cut and bruised.
GEORGE FORCE. Piainfield. cut on head.
J. H. FREEMAN, Plainfield. badly in
jured about the head and body.
James beekHdn, Oh fldlHDeAu, anu
Ledeateux, of New York city, are missing.
OF the wounded it is probable that four
or five will die.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR WRECK.
The blame for the disaster is placed by
the railroad officials on Engineer Davis.
who, according to policeman who took
him from the shattered cab of his locomo-
tive, admitted that he had seen the red
and green danger lights diSplayed blIt
expecting to see them suddenly changed
to white. rushed on until it was too late to
stop. No statement has been obtained
from Davis in the hospital. but at inter-
walls. half conscious in delirium, he means.
II saw nothing
John Ficke, station agent at Crawford.
said to-day that minute before the acci-
dent he received orders to hold the express
| at Crawford. He could hear the train COM
/ ing, and without waiting to answer that he
understood instructions he grabbed his
lantern and rushed out on the platform. AS
| he emerged from the depot the train flashed
/ by. Engineer Davis was leaning out of the
cab window looking straight ahead and
apparently attending to his duty. Ffcke
| rushed back to his key to warn Westfield,
| but the train had passed Westfield and
plunged into the other train three-quarters
| OF a mile beyond before a message could
| be sent. Ficke says that he saw the clock
| when he took the order to hold the express
and also when he warned Westfeld. and
| that the elapsed time was only a few sec
| onds over two minutes, showing that the
express was really travelling at higher
speed than sixty miles an hour.
The scenes following the wreck were hor-
| r1ble. Because the cars were splintered
almost to kindling wood by the force of the
collision hot Goals from the engine fire box
1 hercely. What hope there had been OF
rescuing the wounded in the last car of the
local express had to be given up as the
4 mr. n
| the wounded, imprisoned by the piled-up
debris, were burned to death. An east
/ bound train ran into the wreckage of the
other, but did not add to the loss of life.
| Most Of the passengers on the local ex-
press, on which all of those killed were rid
ing, were well-to-do residents of Plainfield.
| n. j., and neighboring towns, who were
| returning to their homes from their places
| of business i'm New York. or the identified
dead ten lived in Plainfield, and in the long
list of injured Plainfield is given as the
home of the majority. Nearly every block
| In the town seemed to have one or more OF
the wounded in 1t to-day: but the city,s ia.
/ were ample.
The Jersey Central tracks had been
left to-day are three black patches on the
snow where the wreckage burned.
AN OFFICIALS STATEMENT.
| w. G.. Hesler, vice president and general
manager of the Central. Railroad of New
Jersey, who was at the scene of the acci-
dent forty minutes after it occurred and
has since made investigation, gave out a
| statement to-day in which he said that the
| accident was due to the element of human
| fallibility" in railroad operation. "The
| company" he said, has purchased and
pneumatic automatic system of block sig
naling, the signals working before, during
and after accidents. The signals were
! working all right before and after the acci-
dent as we found on investigation. 1t
seems, then. that along came the Phila-
delphia express one of our hourly trains
| flying past all the warnings, was driven by
| it's engineer into the local train with such
| force as to telescope three of its coaches
So far as can ascertain the only explana-
| ton Davis engineer of the express, gave is
| that he did not see any red lights. But he
| was in such a critical condition that he
| stand he jumped and his injuries were re-
| ceived in that manner. The air brakes
| were applied just before the crash, l think.
| by the engineer, though they might have
| been set by being torn apart in the crash
Davis was a thoroughly competent engineer
and had six years experience running on
| phia He was thirty-three years old, of
good habits and had a very good record.
| The property loss is insignificant. The ex-
press train apart from the engine was not
| damaged cents worth. Soon after the
wreck the Somerville local came through
| on another track and its cars were
4
| train ran into the wreckage and caused
| further loss of life are wholly false.
A policeman who aided In the work of
| rescue made the following statement to-
| day concerning Davis: "I assisted in car
| rying Davis the engine driver. from the en-
gine. He was terribly injured. He said:
| L am responsible for the accident. 1 saw
| the danger signal. but expected it to turn
| white'"
The statement made last night that 1t
| was a Royal Blue line express of the Balti-
| more & Ohio Company which ran into the
| local express erroneous. There was
| no Baltimore d Ohio train in the wreck.
| Jury was called at Plainfied to-day 20
| hold an inquest and adjourned until to-
| morrow morning, when an exhaustive in
| vestigation will be begun i'm order to fix
the responsibility for the disaster. The
| grand jury, which was to have been dis
| missed tomorrow, will be held in recess in
| order that the evidence taken at the in
quest may be submitted without delay