The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1908-10-05
HOLD INQUEST IN
SCHUNkE CASE
THEODORE JEFFRlEs, BRAKE
I MAN, WHO CUT the CROSSING
TO ALLOW PEOPLE TO PASS,
TELLS HOW TERRsLE Accl-
DENT E4APPENED.
coRoNER's JURY.

Coroner Mitchell summoned the
above coroner's jury today after he
learned Of the death of little Helen
Schunke at ST. Johns hospital from
injuries received on Saturday when
she was run over by some freight cars
on the Great Northern track at the
Tenth street crossing, and an Inquest
is being held this afternoon.
Theodore Jeffries. the brakeman
who was In charge OF the cars that
caused the death of the little girl. was
the first witness to testify and he
gave comprehensive statement re-
garding the accident
Mr.. Jeffries according to his testi-
nony was brakeman on a freight
train which ha@ orders to meet an
other freight train In the yards in
this city The other train had the
right of way and 1t was necessary for
Mr.. Jeffries train to split up on three
tracks in order to get into the yards.
After the other train had gone
through Mr.. Jsffries and the rest of
his train crew started to pick up"
their train and they had 1T almost
all together and were just after the
last string OF cars. One of the brake
men went down to See that the coup
ling was made and there was trouble
with the coupling joint. The other
brakeman gave the signal to back
the string of cars down but the COUP
ling failed to connect and Mr. Jeffries
got the signal to slack ahead and
again the coupling failed to work.
Mr., Jeffries saw that the coupling did
not connect and he supposed that the
@knuckIe" which is part of the coup
ling apparatus, was broken and as
they had been holding the Tenth street
crossing for some time he decided to
"cut" the Tenth street crossing, 4 e.,
make an opening between the cars so
that the people who were waiting to
cross could get through.
How the Cars Were Placed.
He did this and left the cars in the
following shape: ferries cut the train
about two feet east OF the sidewalk
on Tenth street and the engine pulled
part of the cars toward the west,
leaving space OF about sixty feet at
the crossing with the cars that had
the engine attached to the west of
the crossing and a string OF about
eighteen dead cars east of the crossing.
There were several teams and several
pedestrians waiting to cross and one
of the teams had driven up when jeff
ries heard the eighteen cars to the
east Of the track to which there was
no engine attached begain to move
He says he heard their slack coming
and yelled at the teamster who was
driving up to wait Just then the lit
tie Schunke girl appeared to Jeffries
running to cross the tracks from the
south ahead of the cars She would
have crossed in safety only she slip
ped and fell and one wheel passed
over her leg.
.a What Hit the Cars?
When asked what hit the. cars JEFF
ries said that he did not know. He
said that there was switching crew
working that part of the yards but he
would not say that the switch engine
had struck the cars or pushed down
a string of cars against them, but ii is
evident that one or the other occurred.
The switching crew and several of
the men who were working in the
yards at the time OF the accident will
be put on the stand this afternoon
and 1t Is probable that the coroner's
jury will learn exactly how the acci-
dent happened. At the time of going
to press the jury was up In the yards
making personal investigation OF
the surroundings