New Britain herald., 1916-03-30
WRECK INQUIRY
 NOW UNDER WAY
Federal, State and County Officials
 Investigate N. '. C. Smash
ENGINEER SAW NO SIGNALS
TOwCrman Denies He Fell AslcCp- Driver of First Train Saw Stop Sig For Second Section.


 For Second Section.
 Cleveland, O., March 30-Full toll of the railroad wreck at Amherst yesterday cannot be known for SeN- eral days, say surgeons attending the victims, but it is certain to exceed twenty seven, the present figure. TWO Of the injured, Albert Keller of Chi cago, and Wilbur Mahoney, of Tole- do, are not expected to live more than a few hours.
 Meanwhile the wheels have been set in motion for a Quadruple lnVeS- tigation of the disaster. They will be conducted by the federal. state and county governments, as we'll as by the railroad company. At thlS time the only names mentioned ill connection with the inquiry are those of Towerman Ernst, and Herman Hess, engineer of the second section of the east bound flyer Construction of Coach.
 The question of whether the so- called "Death coach on train No. S6 was of modern steel construction as claimed by New York Central off, cials, or was mainly of wood prom ised to be an important feature of the investigation.
 Railroad officials today were still divided in opinion as to whether the blame should be placed upon the towerman who, it is alleged by some officials, was asleep and failed to give the proper signal, or upon the en- gineer who it may be shown either failed to see the signal or exceeded his orders.
 Engineer Leonard of the first sec tion of train No. S6, which pulled the "Death car' asserts he stopped his train on a signal originating ln Ernsts tower.
 Engineer Hess declares he saw no signal when he brought his section booming along at a 50 mile an hour 1 speed about three minutes later.
 ---. No Stop Signal. ~e~ ~- Ernst asserts he set no stop signa l, ] declaring the line was open for En- 1 ginccr Leonard 10 go ahead. Of the moro than forty persons in iurcd in the wreck, several besides those mentioned above were said to be in a precarious condition early today Unofficial but what was re- garded as reliable reports late yes terday placed the number of dead a t thirty.
 Denies He Was Asleep.
 Ernst early today made a state ment denying that he was asleep or that he was incapacitated by loss of sleep. He asserted that he set the signal properly, but that it failed to work and that the accident resulted.
 Supplementing his statement Tow erman Ernst said:
 If the signals had been working properly the block signal light two miles away would have flashed a cau- tion and the block a mile away would have signalled dead stop.
 q was on the lookout for train S6 When it was two miles away I threw the signal lever into the clear, giv- ing No. SC a clear path. I realized there had been a signal failure when the train stopped, and I again damned the signal lever into the clear This time it must have worked, for the train started ahead. Then the crash came. I didn't have time to stop the Twentieth Century before it, too crashed into the wreck"
 H. w. BeInap, representing the in terstate commerce commission early today opened the federal investiea- ton.
 A. $. Ingalls, general superintcn- dent of the New York Central lines west of Buffalo, had laid before MT. Belnap all that the railroad officials had learned so far in their investi- gations of the cause of the accident.
 M J. Hefferman and w r. Pack ard, inspectors for the state utilities commission, began their informal in- VeStigatiOn simultaneously.
 The name of John TIearn of Gall ipolis, Ohio, was today stricken from the list of dead. Hearn's father telegraphed today saying his son is in Mount Clemens, Mich.
 Further Idcntifications.
 Identified dead today were
 Harry White, Pullman porter, Chi cago.
 J. C. Boyle, Hillsville, Pa.
 pr. J. M. Grau, Jerry City, Ohio.
 Fred Wean, address unknown.
 There remain today six bodies of men and four of women unidentified One of the bodies is believed to be that of Austin Giblin, Sr., of this city
 A list of "probable dead" among the unidentified was given out today as follows:
 Austin Giblin ST, Cleveland.
 - OSman, and -- OSman, De- troit brothers of Ollie OSman Cleve- land, who were travelling with him from Detroit to Cleveland. Ollie Os- man is among the injured at EIyria and no trace has been found of his brothers.
 C. Mehaffe, Trafford, Pa, who was