The sun., 1905-09-13
DID TOWERMAN LEAVE POST?
NEW STORY TOLD or ELEVATED
RAILROAD DISASTER.

Motorman Kelly Not Found by Police
Fellow Employee quotes Him as saying
That Signal Was changed as lie Passed
It-Track supcreleyation Impossible
Towerman jackson, who had charge OF
the elevated railroad switches at Fifty
third street and Ninth avenue at the time
OF the catastrophe Monday morning, was
admitted to bail by Coroner Scholer late
Monday afternoon. Afterward he was
taken in charge by officials Of the company
According to fellow employees OF Jackson
the story he told to his superiors was rather
different from the one he told the Coroner
He accounted for having changed the state
ment by saying that "they put it up to him
80 hard that he couldn't help himself
Tho first story Of jackson was that when
he saw the train Of Motorman Kelly-the
train which was afterward wrecEed-it
bore Sixth avenue signals. He therefore
set the switches for Sixth avenue, and Kelly
bore down on these switches at the same
speed as though he had been bound straight
down Ninth avenue and thus caused the
accident.
In the statement which his fellow en-
ployees say jackson made to his superiors
yesterday there is an amendment Of con-
siderable Importance. 1t is that after
setting his switches and signals for the
only downtown train in sight, which he
still maintained was a Sixth avenue train,
he was seized by illness suddenly and
left his post for minute and a half, going
down from the tower. On his ret urn to
his post he found Kelly's train on the switch
and rushing to destruction at Ninth ave-
nue. speed. He was sure the tower clock
showed he was only gone minute.
Jackson's fellow workmen said In his
behalf that IL it were true that jackson
had made such a statement to his superiors
Kelly, the motorman Of the wrecked train.
was still blamabe for not having regarded
the signals which gave warning that the
Sixth avenue witches were open.
jackson said yesterday that by advice
Of counsel, who were sent to him by the
Interborough company, he would make
no statement until he was called upon by
the Coroner at the inquest, which Is now set
for a week from Friday.
The police learned some things yesterday
about Paul Kelly. the motorman Of the
wrecked train. But they have not yet
found Kelly. although the authorities all
over the country have been asked to arrest
him for homicide. He is being sought
especially in Boston, st. Louis and here.
Capt. Gallagher heard late Monday that
Kelly who disappeared Immediately after
tho accident had been seen in the company
OF George Hughes, another motorman OF
the Interborough company. Capt. Gal
laRher found Hughes and brought him
down town to talk to Coroner Soholer.
Hughes said in effect:
when went home q am on night duty
at little after 10 o'clock I found Paul
Kelly there. Kelly came into the COM
pany's employ little before did and we
have been good friends. There were two
other men with Kelly. He told me that
he had been waiting for me for about half
m hour.
"The first thing he said about the acci-
dent was:
.Well, they've tried to do me twice, now;
and this time they done M"
Hughes said that Kelly made very definite
statements that he was victim Of con-
spiracy, accusing particular men OF having
tried to get him into trouble.
There are two signals ahead OF the Sixth
avenue switch which turns trains into Fifty
third street from Ninth avenue. The switch
tower is 1926 feet, about, from the switch.
Ten feet north of the switch ia low signal
called the "two foot signal Fifty feet
north of this is another indicator, which
the men call the six foot signal If these
signals show green it is a sign that the track
down Ninth avenue is clear; If they show
yellow It is a sign that the Sixth avenue
switch is turned.
aKelly said to me-" continued Hughes
shat when he saw the six foot signal, it
vas green. But that the two foot signal
beyond it flashed yellow just as he passed
Il. He said that he at once put on his
brakes, It takes once and half train
length TO stop train; if Kelly's train was
a Ave car train it was about 200 feet long;
40. as he said he had not much chance
Tn atop between the switch and the curve
l25 feet beyond.
kelly said that he was making pretty
sood time because his train was a little
late and he had orders at Fifty ninth street
TO skip the Fiftieth street station. But 1t
isn't possible to put on any power on that
down grade there without breaking your
shoes, so he couldn't have been going much
faster than gravity would take him. AS for
any story that he jerked his train after it
started down from Fifty ninth street. any
motorman knows that it would simply
get him in trouble. Kelly said that he did
not throw on his emergency break-,he
was afraid to use 1t on the curve, but that
he did put on all his air as fast as he dared.
II asked Kelly il he was mobbed or threat
ened after the accident. He said not.
but that man ran up to him right after
the accident and advised him to run away
and told him that there might be an attempt
to lynch him later. This man advised him
to discard his uniform coat and hat. Kelly
said that he was going to take twenty-four
hours to think matters over before giving
himself up to the police and that he did
not know whether he would give himself
up at all. I don't know where he is now
Coroner Scholer sent word to Kelly
through the newspapers and all Of Kelly's
former associates that IL he would give
himself up there would be no effort to
make a scapegoat Of him, that he would
at once be admitted to bail as jackson had
been, and that IL he were innocent Of wrong
doing he would have the fairest possible
opportunity to prove it.
Coroner Scholer said that he was not
making out a case against the officers
OF the Interborough corporation" 1t had
been the experience of the Coroners In the
Grand Central tunnel case that it was almost
impossible to hold officers of a corporation
for accidents which happen through the
fallibility Of employees except through
the civil courts. The same view was ap-
m rovflv held in the District Attorney,s