The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-25
WalIingfOrd Wreck Caused
By "Man Failure On
All Sides
ALLOWED RULES TO
BE DISREGARDED
Equipment Antiquated and Insuffi-
cient 10 Handle Volume of Traf-
fic-Officials Did Not En-
force Regulations


Washington. September e4.z"Atan fail-
ure' all along the line from officials
and directors of the New Haven railroad
down to its trainmen is held by the IN
terstate commerce commission to have
been the cause of walnngford wreck Sep
temher ? in which q we're Killed and 20
injured. In its report made public today
the committee blames the crews of the
wrecked the trains for lapses and scores
officers and directors for insufficient man
ayers
Operating officials of the New Haven
and the officers and directors OF the sys-
tenn are grilled scathingly for promulga-
tion of regulations that were permitted TO
become practically dead letters" and
for not seeing to it personally that oo-
Grating conditions were what they had
directed them to be.
Man failure in this case said Com
missioner Mechord who prepared the re-
port after exhaustive personal invests
CATION OF the accident, "began high up in
official authority, and 1t was natural
sequence that il reached down to those
In positions lower in official rank, but
still weighted with great responsibility
Anticipated Signals Used
In use at the time OF this disaster, the
report points out were Anticipated sig
nails condemned by the locomotive engine
men as well as by the public service com
mission of Connecticut and old wooden
cars unsuited by construction for such
modate These were held to be contribu-
tory reasons for the excessive number OF
casualties. Commissioner McChord indi-
Gates the results of a similar recent ac-
cdent at Tyrone. Pa, in which the equip
ment was all steel and in which none OF
the passengers was killed as an object
lesson in favor of the use of modern
equipment. The commission demands of
the New Haven road the immediate adop-
tion of an adequate system of superin-
tendence and supervision which will give
| those in authority definite and positive
| information as to whether or not the
sRfety requirements and rules OF this
RAILROAD are ohsGped.
After comprehensive review OF tho
testimony taken at the investigation, Conn
| missioner McChord says in part:
THE direct cause of this accident was
the failure of F'agman Murray properly
to protect his train, the failure of En-
speed of his train, in order that he could
bring it to a stop before passing auto
matte signal No. % and the failure of
Conductor Adams to make certain that
his train properly protected. An ad-
ditional cause was the failure of Engine
man Wands to bring his train to stop.
as required by the rules, before passing
automatic signal No. %, which was in the
stop position.
Lack of Supervision
while this accident was directly due to
failure of employees properly to perform
THEN duties the signal system in use was
entirely inadequate safely to direct and
govern the movement of the large volume
of traffic over this line and there was
a deplorable lack of supervision on the
part of operating officers; on this account
the conditions which led up to this acci-
dent were possible.
I'm reports by this commission of the
investigation of previous accidents on this
railroad, defects In management, neglect
of obvious precautions for safety inef-
fective rules and these not systematically
enforced, high speed trains closely fol-
lowing one another without adequate SAFE
guards, derelictioh of duty on the part
of certain employees. as well as gem
eral weakness of discipline, have been
denounced and condemned,
1T is astounding that this state of at
fairs is allowed to continue to exist
After giving list of executive officers
and directors of the New Haven includ-
ing many of the foremost men of the
financial world, Commissioner McChord
continues.
"On this directorate were and are men
whom the confding public recognize as
magicans in the art of finance and wiz
ards in the construction, operation and
consolidation of great systems of rail-
roads The public, therefore, rested Sc
cure that with the knowledge OF tho
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Continued ON Pnge Ten)