The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-03-19
CAUSE OF MANY DEATHS
Supt. ONeil Assumes the Blame for Moving Trains
-Coroners Jury at Work Trying to Fix the
Responsibility for the Great Wei
ington Catastrophe

Seattle, March 19.-All RESPONSE
bility for moving Great Northern To-
cal train No. 25 and mail train No.
27 out of the Cascade tunnel and into
the Wellington railroad yards, on the
night of February "a, thus placing
both trains in the path of an avail
anche that carried them, together
with two rotary snow plows and his
own private car, into the ravine be-
low, and caused the loss of 95 lives
ON the morning of March 1, was as
sumed by Supt James H. O'Neil, of
the Leavenworth-Seattl division, be-
fore a coroner's jury assembled in
Seattle today to investigate the most
appalling railroad accident in the
history of the Pacific northwest.
Superintendent O'Neil virtually
absolved Conductor ]. L. Petit, in
charge of the Spokane local, from all
responsibility in the matter. Petit
was killed in the disaster. At the
same time, the superintendent de-
clared that if there had been a snow
shed at Wellington the trains would
have been protected and that the con-
| struction of a shed there will pre-
vent similar catastrophes in the flu
ture.
He insisted, however, that he was
doing what, in his best judgment,
was the best thing when he took the
snowbound trains out from the pro-
lection of the tunnel into the open
yards at Wellington. There was dan
ger of suffocating the passengers in
the tunnel and also of wreck from
train from the other side OF the
big bore running into the stalled
coaches, he said.
Besides, he continued, 1t would
have been almost impossible to keep
the passengers warm and 1t would
have been difficult to furnish them
food. His chief motive in ordering
the change was that the tunnel SEEM
ed far more dangerous in event OF a
snowslide
Storms Worst Ever Known.
Conditions were most unusual, de-
clared Superintendent O'Neil. 1t had
showed and rained for nine days, a
storm record that had not been ap-
droached during his three years
service in the Cascade Mountain re-
gion.
The question of the Great North
ems responsibility in the matter of
keeping on hand a supply of coal
for the rotary snow plows which
were seeking to remove the slides,
thereby liberating the two imprisoned
trains, was the principal one gone
into by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
Alfred Ludlin.
Superintendent O'Neil, while ad
hitting that the fuel supply for the
plows became exhausted, insisted
that he had made the best fight pos
sible, going over the ground several
times in order to keep the track
clear from February % until Febru-
airy 26, when the-coal ran out. Slides
1900 feet long were removed twice
from the same place and third slide
occurred when the rotaries finally
passed through.
O'Neil, who made most heroic eff
fort to save the living and recover
the dead at the scene Of the disaster.
was the first witness called this
morning and was on the stand at adj
journment at 1890. He resumed
the stand this afternoon.
James H. O'Neil, the star witness
in the investigation, has been super
| intendent of the Seattle-Leavenworth
and Seattle-vancouver divisions of
the Great Northern railway for the
past three years. In reply to ques-
lions from Deputy Prosecuting attor-
ney Lundin, he told the following
story of the catastrophe and the
events leading up to it.
Snow began falling in the noun
tains on February 81, and continued
to fall without ceasing up to March
1, except for two days of heavy
rains. The last through eastbound
train passed Wellington at midnight
February %, and the last westbound
several hours before that. Slides of
lsnow and earth INSTRUCTED the tracks
and blockaded traffic after this, and
the only rotary snow plows on the
east and west divisions, four in num-
Der, were put to work removing the
slides to liberate the two trains that