Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-09-20
DISPATCHER ERRS
AND SCORE PERISH.
TWENTY-FIVE KILLED AND AS
MANY INJURED IN WRECK
IN VERMONT.
AN INVESTIGATION BEGUN
Freight and Passenger Train, Loaded
with Millworkers, Collide and Day
Coach Is Splintered
EXPRESS NARROWLY ESCAPES

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VT,
Sept. 16.-Through the error of Il train
dispatcher twenty-five persons Were
Killed and as many more seriously in
Jured early in a head-on collision on the
Concord division of the Boston q Maine
railroad. The revised list of identified
dead follows:
SHAUGHNESSY, TIMOTHY, Manchester
,SHAUGHNESSY, MRS. TIMOTHY, Man
chester.
SOUTHWICK, GEORGE L., Six Linden
street, Worcester, Mass.
PHELPS, FRED NJ, Ochiltree, Tex
WARREN, MRS. NJ E., Haverhill. Mass
BOlSNERT, MRS ADOLPH, Concord,
n. II.
BARRETT, MISS ANNIE, Manchester
ROVER, AUGUSTINE, Manchester
GARRISON, RICHARD f, Lebanon, \.
II.
LOWER, F. II. Barton Landing, Vt.
BRIGGS, MRS. Z. S, West Lebanon, n.
CONGDON, JOHN NJ, Bethel, Vt.
CADY, LEON s., West Lebanon, \. II.
WARREN, T. HOWARD, Hayerhill,
Mass
VENTlNNIER, MRS. WILLIAM, Robin
son, Que.
VENTINNIER, MISS LILLIAN, daughter
of above.
CUNNINGHAM, MRS. ALICE, Hamilton,
Mass.
Station Agent Greeley of Canaan sta
ton. through whose hands passed the ia
tai orders Tor the freight Urain to pro
coed on the passenger trains time, was
temporarily removed today. Greeley was
regarded highly here as Il capable agent.
An investigation of the disaster will
be begun here today, probably under the
direction of NJ. ID. Cobleigh of Lebanon,
the county solicitor.
4 Read as Costs rs Lives.
Supt. Ray of the Concord division be-
gan an investigation of the cause of
the disaster and this afternoon gave out
the following statement:
The accident was due to IL misunderstand-
ing between }. A Crowley, the night dis
patcAer at Concord who has been in the
service for seven years, and John Greeley,
the night operator at Canaan, who has seen
twenty three years service in transmitting
train orders. One of these two men made
the fatal error of taking Il cipher for Il
four. The train order which Conductor
Lawrence of the freight signed for at the
Canaan station said that train No 80 was
running one hour and ten minutes late.
''On this order the freight conductor could
easily have made the Sidetrack at West
Canaan and this his intention. Ordi-
narily train No "a followed No. 80 thirty
five minutes later, but the freight conductor
held a train order received at West Han
over that No. 81 was forty minutes late. 1t
was the freight conductors intention then
to keep on to West Canaan. Train Dis
patcher Crowley of Concord state that he
told the Canaan operator that No. 81 was
an hour and ten minutes late. 1t was this
mistake of taking cipher for four that
caused the wreck.
The wreck occurred just before dawn
on a stretch of track near Canaan sta
ton. a heavy northbound freight
crashed into the southbound Quebec ex-
press. The day coach of the passenger
train. crowded with persons, mostly New
England millworkers returning from q
fair at Sherbrooke, Quebec, was smashed
to matchwOod. No one in the coach es-
capped death or serious injury. Passen-
gers i'll four sleeping coaches at the rear
of the passenger train escaped with a
severe jolting.
The crowded Montreal express which
was following the Quebec train, almost
ran on to the wreck in the early morn
ing mist. 1t was stopped only q few hun
dred yards behind the wreck and its pas
sengers aided i'll the work of rescue.
Crowded Day Coach Splintered.
The freight train was on straight
piece of track about Il mile in length
and the Quebec express had rounded the
curve into this stretch when each en-
gineer saw the headlight of the opposite
train burst out of the fog not 200 yards
away. Both engineers set their brakes
and then jumped, while the two great
locomotives crashed into each other and
locked together, rolled into the ditch.
The baggage car i'll the rear of the
engine was hurled back into the crowded
day coach like Il great ram and tore it
asunder from end to end. AS it did so
the rear end of the baggage car rose up,
so that when it stopped at the forward
end of the smoker, after tearing through
the day coach, the car was almost per
pendicular.
with more than fifty people Shortly
before the accident few Of the men had
gone back into the smoking car in the
rear leaving the womentO get a little sleep
in the straight seats One of those who
escaped said that as the train was round
ing the curve some one in the front of
the car began to sing, so that nearly
everyone was awake when the crash
came.