Los Angeles herald., 1907-07-02
MOTORMAN SAYS
OIL ON TRACKS
MADE CAR SLIP
Declares Equipment
Caused Wreck
Street Car Employe Charged with
MansIaughter Alleges That Wheel
Was Flat or FIarge Was
Clipped

When the preliminary hearing of
John Harris, charged with manslaugh-
ter, was resumed before Justice Ste
phens yesterday the defendant took the
witness stand in his own behalf
Harris was motorman of the Eagle
Rock car which on June jumped the
track and overturned, killing two and
injuring a score of the passengers.
He testified yesterday that he had
been in the employ of the Los Angeles
Railway company two years and five
months and had been regular motor
man the greater part of the time. He
had run cars on several of the city
lines and was not on his regular run
at the time of the accident He said:
Until the Eagle Rock disaster not
one passenger had been injured on my
car, and on one occasion l was COM
mended by the company officials for
good stops 1 had made"
The letter commencing him for the
act was submitted in evidence and is
as follows:
Managers Office, Los Angeles Street
Railway Company.
"Mr. John Harris. Motorman:
at have a report under date of Decem-
ber %, 1906, of a quick stop made by
you in the regular discharge of your
duty when a little girl ran directly in
front of your car on the University
avenue line.
cat a recent meeting of the directors
of this company it was decided to pre-
sent to you a written appreciation of
this act and I take great pleasure in
setting forth the wishes of the direct
ors, and also wish to add my personal
commentator. Yours truly,
~. A. AKIN, Manager"
Wanted Day Off
In explaining how he happened to be
ordered to the Eagle Rock line on the
fateful Sunday Harris said he had
asked for day off from his regular
run on University avenue. The fore
man replied that he could not spare
him for all day. but would give the
University run to some one else and
put Harris on shorter run, which
would enable him to have part of the
day off.
He declared when he reported for
duty in the morning he was instructed
to relieve the motorman on the Eagle
Rock run at 1858 p. m.
When he took the car in the after
noon it was late, arriving at the end of
the line at 4:07. He made one round
trip and then went back to Eagle Rock
station at Townsend avenue, which he
left at 6.04 on the trip when the acci-
dent occurred.
after safely passing the switch a
few car lengths down the hill," said
the witness. "I applied the power, grad
ually at first, and later the whole cur
rent for the run down to Central ave-
nue.. When about 700 feet from the
curve I shut off the current and al
lowed the car to coast to within 500 feet
of the turn before applying the brakes.
At the time of shutting off the power
/ believe the car was running eighteen
or twenty miles an hour.
when l applied the air found that
the wheels slid on the rails and imme-
diately released the brakes, as 1 had
been instructed to do in case of the
wheels sliding. A second and third time
/ applied the brakes with like results,
sand then the car left the rails.
Oil on Rails
"The cause of the wheels slipping was
oil on the rails.
al did not reverse,the motors because
/ feared the switch overhead would
blow out, leaving me helpless. The
overhead switches were set to blow out
to prevent burning out the motors by
overlooking.
"I don't think that reversing the
motors would have stopped the car on
that decline and at the speed it was
running said Harris.
with the oil on the rails the wheels
would simply have spun round and
caused the car to jump the track even
before it did.
"The only way that car could have
been stopped on that curve was to have
sanded the track and there was no
way to do it without getting off the
car. There was a small can of sand,
but it was carried for an ornament, l
guess.
"I now I could have made the turn
safely if the curve had been banked
so as to give the outside rail the
proper elevation.
"I understand the company did not
equip their cars with sand boxes, be-
cause the excessive use of sand would
have a tendency to flatten the wheels.
"After the accident I inspected the
track and found it covered with oil.
besides being so low that the oil could
not drain off.
"When 1 first took the car l heard a
humping, which 1 attributed to a fiat
place on one of the wheels, or it might
have been Clipped flange, for 1 no.
ticed the noise particularly when going
round a curve.
"Either a fiat wheel or a Clipped
hange would have a tendency to climb
the rails"
On cross-examination Harris main
tanned that had he reversed the motors
he would have courted disaster.
After argument by attorneys for both
sides Justice Stephens announced that
he would render a decision today at
1870 o'clock.