The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-06-14
engineer Held
in Wreck PROBE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

| CONTINUED fR0N fASb OsE-
| the disaster where he was able to view
at first hand the remaining evidence, al
though he remained incognito during nis
stay in Stamford.
Wrecked Car IL burned.
When the coroner's inquest Is resumed
tomorrow morning, Assistant Prosecutor
Frederick w. Huxford probably will take
up the burning of the Pullman Skylark,
which was the rear coach of the tele-
scoped train and the car In which all
of the persons killed were riding. Benja-
min Spock, attorney for the New Haven
road, today admitted at the inquest that
the Skylark had been dragged from the
scene of the wreck to point about
mile away shortly after midnight and
burned under orders issued by New
Haven officials. In answer to a question
from Coroner J. ]. Phelan. Mr.. Spock
stated that Il was customary for the
road to burn cars which had been
wrecked or damaged beyond repair. He
said that as the car WAS Pullman the
road did not require permission to
burn It
In answer to this. Coroner Phelan
said:
II am sorry this car has been burned.
as many persons will think 1t was done
for the purpose Of destroying evidence.
but fortunately we know of its fiimsy
construction. Still I should have liked
to examine It more thoroughly"
On Run But Few Days.
In answer to questions put to him by
Coroner Phelap, Engineer Doherty said
that he had been In the service OF the
New Haven Road ten years. OF which
time he had been an engineer year and
three months. He said he did not coz
slider himself an expert on signals, Just
a normal man." The witness said he
had passed an examination and received
a certificate of efficiency.
Were you nervous when you took this
train out for the first time on Tuesday,"
Yes, / was nervous. Before this
had been running freight engines and
switchers in the yards"
Are you a teetotaler?'
IT never tasted whisky but once That
was six years ago under the doctors
orders"
The witness testified that he had expe-
rienced trouble in making the air brakes
work since leaving Bridgeport on every
block where signals had been set sgainst
him and he was compelled to slow down.
When Doherty was led up to the point
in his narrative describing the actual
events leading to the fatal wreck. he
broke down, and an intermission of half
an hour was taken to allow him time
to recover.
On resuming his testimony Doherty
said he saw that the distant signal was
set against him when he was about 800
feet away from the Stamford block, and
he yelled to his fireman. yellow eyer
and the fireman answered. yellow eye"
Brakes Wouldn't Work.
81 tried the brakes. but they would not
take hold. Then I put on more air-the
emergency. But that did not take hold
either. l tried the air a third time. but
it did not take hold right. and when 1
saw / was not going to stop in time 4
pulled the whistle a long blast and
waved my hand to the trainmen ahead,
motioning them to go ahead.
"Au / could do was to stand II. and
Just before We hit the Pullman l let go
the whistle cord and grabbed the seat
to brace myself
In testifying to previous trouble with
the same engine, Doherty said that on
the previous Tuesday he had strained
his back while trying to reverse the
engine as he was running into Norfolk
station. in order to avoid killing a little
boy who was walking on the track.
Doherty said the air did not work
properly on this occasion. and the boy
would have been killed had not a line
man pulled the child from the track
just in time.
When asked IL he tried to reverse
before striking the 'Skylark," Doherty
said:
Yes. tried to, but my back was so
lame from the wrench on Tuesday, and
the lever appliance worked so hard. |
that l could not throw the lever back
far enough to offset the ahead motion |
to any extent !