The Washington herald., 1907-01-01

! Determined that responsibility for the
frightfm railroad disaster at Terra Gotta
Sunday night shall be fixed and the guilty
brought 10 account. the District authori-
/ ties yesterday began a rigid Investigation
into the cause Of the catastrophe
/ The Commissioners, police officials,
coroner, and District attorneys Office
busted themselves from morning until late
| at night gathering evidence to be pro-
/ dUced at the coroners inquest tomorrow
morning at 70 o'clock
! Coroner hewitt viii impanel a jury this
morning and conduct them TO the scene
/ OF the wreck at Terra Gotta The Jury
men viii go over the ground carefully and
/ impress themselves with the topography
/ Of the locality and investigate the cause
/ Of the wreck from every possible angle.
/ The coroner viii also have an expert on
/ the scene TO examine the signaling sys-
/ TEN at the Takoma block station.
/ The coroner was atathe mOrgue all the
/ forenoon directing the work and making
preparations for the official inquiry which
/ viii be conducted before d coroner's jury
I Wednesday. About 1850 O'Clock yesterday
1 he accompanied the jury 20 the dead room
and they were sworn over the body Of one
Of the victims Of last nights wreck.
/ The jurors are Messrs c. W Weaver,
/ Oscar Ricketts,. John Beau ST. George
/ Mueller, 4. J. Sanford, and Mr- Brady
Two Wen Face Blame.
! From the mass of testimony already
gathered. it appears that the burden Of
blame viii fall upon the shoulders of one
/ of two men-Harry p. HHdebrand engi-
neer Of the empty that created the
havoc, or Milton ". Phillips. operator at
I the Takoma block signal station. Every
effort is being made by the local authori-
/ Ties 10 prove either that Phillips had the
danger signals set in accordance with his
I duty and Hildebrand passed by the block.
/ ignoring or not seeing the lights. or that
Phillips neglected 10 show the proper
signals, which would eXonerate Hide
I brand. Phillips was released yesterday on
/ Sl00t0 bond. bat Hildebrand is stiu in a
! cell at the Tenth precinct station
That some one made a terrible blunder
! is thought certain by the officials of the
/ District. The weather conditions. while
regarded as possibly responsible for Hill
debrand not seeing the rear lights OF
/ the passenger train in time to avoid the
collision. cannot excuse. i'm the eyes of
( the authorities. the bIunder regarding the
signal lights at the Takoma station.
West CensureS Railroad.
Commissioner West is particularly out
/ spoken I'm his opinion The Commission
/ er severely censures the Baltimore and
/ Ohio Railroad authorities for the man
ner in which they conducted the removal
/ of the dead from the scene of the wreck.
/ He said yesterday that there was an un-
! accountable delay I'm sending a train 20
convey the dead 20 Washington Accord
/ ing 10 the Commissioner. the railroad
! officials sent Out wreckins trains TO clear
the debris from the track and dispatched
a through wcstern-bound passenger train
/ over the repaired roadbed ahead Of the
moTgue train
THE terrible wreck at Terra Gotta.
said Commissioner West. lis all the more
| terrible because it ought never TO have
occurred The value of the block system
/ is completely neutraliZed when the rail-
road authorities will allow another train
| in upon "a block already occupied From
what / learned at the scene of the wreck.
the train of empty cars was given at the
Silver Spring block station what Is known
among railroad men as the double green
which meant that the engineer was TO
proceed with caution. ] cannot under
stand why with the knowledge that there
was "a local train ahead, the second train
was not brought 10 a stop at Takoma.
and held there until the passenger train
was safely out OF the way
No Necessity for speed.
1T was all the more necessary to exer-
else this precaution in view of the fact
/ that the night was extremely foggy. q
! condition which always adds 20 the dan
/ ger of railrOading. The second section
consisted merely of empty coaches. 50
/ that there was no immediate necessity
of hurrying into Washington
Another thing which impressed me
was the delay in sending train to con-
vey the dead to the city, where the bodies
could be placed in the morgue and iden-
titled by their relatives and friends The
injured were taken into the city IS
quickly as possible. but after that the
railroad sent out two or three wrecking
trains. one Of which came all the way
from Baltimore, and Il seemed far more
important to care for few damaged
coaches than for the dead lying on the
hillside in the rain.
a through express To the West was
tutn gwen t4lt tlEt.l OF Way. ana II was
finally near midnight before the dead
were carried into the city. nearly five
hours after the accident occurred
hope that the Investigation viii be rigid
and thorough, because ii is evident that
"a system which allows two trains on a
block at the same time is liable 10 re-
suit in another tragedy"
Both Commissioners MacfarlanG and
West We're early on the scene Of the
catastrophe. Commissioner West spent
four hours at the wreck, arriving shortly
after the accident and nos leaving until
the bodies of the dead had been placed
aboard the train for conveyance into the
city. Mr.. West was accompanied by Fl.
Chadwick Hunter one of the Commission
er's ncighbOrs, who placed his automobile
at the disposal of Mr.. West Commits
sioner Macfarland, as soon as he heard
of the wreck, communicated with the DO
lice and fire departments and The hospital
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