Cañon City record., 1906-03-29
Blame for Wreck
on Operator Lively
Coroner's Jury Censures Railway Company
for Out=Of-Date Methods In Train Service
Makes Recommendations That Safeguard
Patrons of the Great Railway System.

Under 4 subpoenae Lively cannot be
brought back here, although he could
under a warrant, if he had been found
guilty of a crime. After being out
about an hour the jury brought in the
following verdict:
An inquisition holden at Canon City,
in Fremont county, state of Colorado,
on the 18th, 10Th, Goth and 26th days
of March. A. D. 1906. before W. C..
Stephenson, coroner of said county,
upon the bodies of Enos Mcfarland
and W. Cosslett and others meeting
death in the Adobe collision, there ly-
ing dead, by the jurors whose names
are hereto subscribed; said jurors up
on their oaths do find the deceased
came to their death as the result of
the collision of Denver & Rio Grande
trains No. and No. 16, near the sta
ton of Adobe, in the county of Fre-
mont and state of Colorado, on the
10th day of March, 1906, and that said
collision was the result of negligence
on the part of one S. F. Lively, an
agent of the company who was sta
toned at Swallows, but that said ne
gligence was not willful, malicious or
felonious, and is not of such nature as
to render the said Lively or the said
railroad company liable to criminal
prosecution under any statute in this
state; that the train dispatcher at Pu-
eblo gave orders that the aforesaid
trains pass at Adobe, which orders
were delivered to No. 16 at Canon City
and to train No 8 at Pueblo; that af
ter giving said orders said dispatcher
al y, n or n
No. had passed; that said Lively re-
piled in the negative, and the dis
patcher Immediately gave the order
that said trains pass ut Beaver. sta
ton between Swallows and Adobe,
instead of at Adobe; that said order
for passing at Beaver instead of Adobe
was delivered to No. 16 at Florence
and was received by said Lively for
No. at Swallows: that the fact was
that No. 5 had, before the receipt OF
said order and before the making of
the aforesaid answer to the dispatcher,
passed Swallows. but its passing had
not been observed by Lively, because
he had been asleep at the time of its
passing: but the jury believes that the
said Lively believed said train had not
passed. We condemn the action of
the night operator, Van Dusen, in de-
serting his post of duty.
The jury further finds that one of
the rules of the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad company relating to signals
TO be given in the operation of its
trains is numbered 524 and reads as
follows:
"524.-A fixed signal must be used
at each train order office, which shall
display red when trains are to be
stopped for orders. When there are
no orders the signal must display
white
This jury condemns this rule as un-
safe in the operation of trains on such
a system as the Rio Grande and say
that in the Judgment of this jury said
rule is responsible in measure for
the aforesaid collision.
The jury believes that said rule
should at once be revoked and rule
be adopted in its stead requiring all
stations to display danger signal and
no train be permitted to pass until the
operator in charge at the station after
call from the approaching train
changes in the view of the engineer
the danger or stop signal to clear