Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-18
DEEP PROBE FOR
NEW YORK WRECK
Inquiry to Fix the Blame Will Be
Exhaustive.
7WENTY-ONE ON DEATH LIST
7WENTY-ONE ON DEATH LIST
Three Injured Passengers Not Ex-
pected to Live.
MANY WITNESSES ARE CALLED
Assistant District Attorney Smyth
Believes Speed Test Was Being
Made When Crash Came.

Was the New York Central MAX
ing speed test with the electric
train which was wrecked Saturday
night at the cost of twenty-one lives
and injuries to scores of passengers?
Assistant District Attorney Smytl,
as the result of his inquiries, believes
it was, and the coroner and a jury
will determine if he is correct in this
opinion. The investigation, at
which the district attorneys Office
is represented, is in progress this
afternoon.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, February 1S.-Dstrict At
torney Jerome's office will be represented
at the coroner's Inquest this afternoon In
to the wreck on the New York Central
railway Saturday evening, and it is ex-
pected that the disputed question as, to the
speed of the wrecked train will be an
swered by the testimony of the nlotorman,
E. R. Rogers; the train inspector who
and from the reports of the towermen
and from the reports of the towerman,
who recorded the passage of the train. An
effort will be made to ascertain just what
caused the rail to be torn up and the
breaking of a wheel on the leading motor.
All the bodies of the passengers which
were held at the Bronx Park police station
have been identified and removed. OF the
injured in the hospitals three are regarded
today as being in a critical condition.
They are:
N. Y. skull fractured.
Elsie Sniffen of Englewood, N. j., skull
Arabelie Fowler of Plcasantvile, N. Y,
legs broken.
Died in Hospital.
Ernest Knoll of Mount Kisco. n. Y.
taken to the hospital with a fractured
thigh, died at o'clock this afternoon.
Coroner Schwannecke, who was informed
early today that Mr. Knoll was likely to die.
went to the hospital and took his state
ment Together there were twelve SUI
ferers from the wreck in the Fordham, Lin
coin and Lebanon hospitals today.
The coroner was busy all day yesterday
visiting hospitals, police stations and all
other places that suggested the possibility
of acquiring information as to the identity
of some of the unrecognizable dead, and IN
formation as to the rate of speed at which
the train was travelling from such of the
living as were able to talk to him on the
subject.
The death of Mr. Knoll today brings the
number Of fatalities up to twenty-one. There
is difference in the reports as to the num-
Der of wounded the minimum number be-
ing placed at LAT and the maximum at 153
persons.
1t was not until well after midnight OF
Saturday that the ambulances had removed
all of the injured who were not cared for by
their friends The search for relics that
had begun at once upon the arrival of the
police was kept up until the entire distance
covered by the wrecked train had been gone
over time and again, as a result of which
a great number of trinkets and small arti-
cles such as persons carry with them as
ornaments, pocket pieces anC the like had
been collected.
Clothing on the Tracks.
Fragments of women's and mems cloth
ing were strewed along the track, and the
back of one womans coat from which the
sleeves and front had been torn, was found
and preserved in the hope that some one
who knew it's wearer might by this bit Of
cloth be enabled to identify it.
District Attorney Manley subpoenaed nine
witnesses yesterday afternoon and had the
names of several other persons who would
be subpoenaed as soon their where
abouts could be learned.
Edward r. Roberts, the motorman who
YVES driving the Inflated train. was arrested
and examined by District Attorneys Smyth,
Manley and Mcclure. After listening to
all the man had to say and making a rec
ord thereof, Roberts was released upon his
own recognizance. He promised to appear
wherever and whenever he might be wanted
by the authorities and breathed a sigh of
relief as he bowed himself out of the Office.
Roberts said the train had gone one
eighth of a mile after the first car had
snapped off the track before he knew that
there had been an accident and that it had
slipped along the rails rs much farther be-
fore he could bring it to a STOP
After the district attorneys had investi-
gated for themselves, as far as they could
do so, and after talking with several men
employed by the road, Mr.. Smyth was of
the opinion that the railroad company was
experimenting with that particular train.
and that this trip was, in fact nothing
more or less than a speed test. So far as
has been divulged. there is no official au-
thority to sustain District Attorney Smyth's
opinion. The little that has been said on
the subject of the wreck by the officers of
the railroad company would lay the catas-
trophe to the breaking of an axle or wheel
Of the car which first left the rail. and in
support of this view 1t Is said that one of
the pilot wheels of the motor car was
broken from its axle.
Funerals at White Plains.
The funerals Of the eight White Plains
victims of the harlem wreck will all be
held this week. probably three of the dead
being buried on the same day. The funeral
of Myron e. Evans, the railroad president
and president of the White Plains Young
Men.a Chriatiap Association. will probably