Norwich bulletin., 1916-09-28

Wednesday was the fifth day Of the trial of Charles H. Mansfield on the charge of mansldughter, before Judge Rathbun and a jury in the superior court for Washington county, in ses- sion at Westerly. The accused was engineer of the Gilt Edge express, train 25, that crash&d into the rear end of the New London local train, 633, at Bradford, in the evening of April IT, last.
 Herman P. Haley, train despatcher at New London, who was on the wit ness stand when court adjourned on Tuesday, resumed his testimony when court reconVened Wednesday morning. Upon cross- examination by MT. Fltz- gerald, the witness testified in rela- ton to the train sheet, that 1t was not made out entirely by him but by two others. all working on eight hour shifts. He was on duty from to II o'clock on the date of the Bradford wreck He gave the time of the pass age of train 25. showing arrival at Kingston 7.19, Shamrock 7.24, Wood River Junction 7.27 and Bradford 7.32. These times are reported by tower men. The time of 633 was at Kings ton TOP, Shamrock 7.15, Wood iver Junction 7.1S and Bradford 7.26. At Kingston the difference between the trains was 12 minutes, minutes at Wood River and six minutes at Brad ford. Train 633 delay at Kingston was noticed, and was near the sched- uled time of train 25. Between Au- burn and Bradford he did not notice any loss of time of train 25.
 MT. Haley could not tell who sent or received the messages at the Brad ford tower, that is there were no mes sages, but rather instructions, or con- Versation, he said. He communicated to 633 and 25 through the towerman. He had no record of the instructions given on the night of the wreck, from the train sheet is the record, but does not show that 6S3 was ordered into a siding. He is supposed to make notes. It was not the custom of locomotive of 633 to lose steam at Bradford or the p was to stop there. and there fore were occurrences out of the or dinary, and it was not the rule for 25 to get into New London before 633. Another train, 623. passes 633 at Kingston regularly and that is not extraordinary. No provision for 25 to pass 633 except at New London where 6S3 finishes the trip. The in structions to towermen was to put 633 on the siding and to signal 25 to stop and take the passengers of 633 at Bradford. The orders of train des- patcher to towermen is absolute.
 After getting notice of delay Of 633 at Bradford he made effort to get in 5tructi ions to 25 at Wood River Junc- ton, but it was too late, as 25 was gong Dy that tower lie could not get word to 25 at Wood River to stop at Bradford. After that did not notify Bradford that 25 had passed Wood River Junction. The message was first sent to Wood River and then to Bradford. The towerman at Wood River could probably have thrown the starter and stopped 25. if the train had not proceeded too far on clear signals from Wood River. There have been cases in emergencies when signals f7aV IArav neers. The train would have been held up by hand signal by lantern, if mes sage had reached Wood River in time that is by Tagging the train, but gave orders to stop at Bradford. To flag or stop meant about the same thing. To stop means by lantern or by sig nals. Order to towerman to flag train means to stop. and witness was lia- bic to use either word. By f1agginr 1t meant giving the signal by swing Ing the lantern, he said. The Tagging of a train. MT. Haley said, meant to stop, and it was at the discretion of toWorman. He would almost stop the train by signals and then go out and flag the train at night with a red lan- tern. He could not recall telling the towerman at Wood River not to throy the starter signal. He said Ross was the operator. but he did not know where Ross was now, but did not think he was in the. employ Of the company,
 
 abouts is unknown. 1T witness could have stopped p at Wood River he would not have sent like instructions to Bradford. The instructions to Bradford were timed. as being received at 7.30.
 When witness was notified from Bradford that 633 engine was Iosinu steam it occasioned no worriment, he told MT. Otis. counsel for the state. He
 
 a'arm IS to the safety of passengers on train 25. There was no reason, he said, to hurry except to save time He had no cause to believe that there was to be collision between train 25 and 633. There was nothing in the situa- 1 tion that he regarded as extraordi- | nary It is common to put trains on l sidings to let other trains go by. He believed that train 25 would be stop 1 ped at Bradford by signals, after fail l ing at Wood iver Junction
 The witness testified that he knew there were signals that could be used 1 at Bradford, after 25 passed Wood l lver. The situation was not one of | emergency, and there is no special l form for emerging instructions. It | would not be proper to give order to l throw signal of danger in front of | engineers face" It would not be pro- i per for towerman at Wood River to | I neer, without instructions from train i despatcher, representing the superin- l tendent. Train 633 came to Bradford | at 7.26 and train 25 passed Wood | River at 7.27. and therefore had inter | val of one minute to send message to l 25 at Wood River, and this was not | done until message was sent to Brad l ford to put 633 on siding The train | 23 passes 623 at Kingston regularly, | but no special record is made of that | on the time sheet, or of the like work | of any other trains except as to the | time. There have been cases where | passengers from local trains have | been transferred to express trains, and | would consider that an emergency, as |! 1t was not of daily routine.
 It is not usual to stop express trains en route unless for some special req son, testified MT. Haley in response to | queries by MT. Fitzgerald. All pas senger trains are of the same class, but schedules are arranged to allow through trains to have the right of | way, and in some instances express trains are scheduled to pass local | trains. At Kingston twelve minutes is