New Britain herald., 1916-02-24
MIX FINDING POINTS TO ENGINEER CURTIS Why Should He Run Past Signals
 and Kill Flagman?
 QUERY BASIS OF DECISION


 coroner Puzzled By Actions of Man
 ]" Charec of Local That Smashed
 Into Express at Milford
 Commission Probe Is On.
 we" Haven, Feb. 24-Some facts were established by Coroner Eli Mix Ill ms inquiry today into the rear end co1lisloh of trains at Milford on Tues u"S "hlch may lead to the placing of responsibility for the wreck and sacri- 1lce or ten lives. He has found that Enslneer Curtis of train five, the To- cal' ran past a point on the track 7, on the line east of the wreck at a rate es- tlmated between twenty-five and fifty miles an hour; that at the same sneed he went by his distant signal set at caution which was seven thousand feet behind the stalled express 79: that tlagman Tourtellot was struck bv No 3 as he was stopping over the rails to place torpedo six hundred feet be- hlnd No. 79, and that Curtis without diminishing speed ran by his nome" semaphore signal which was set both With danger and caution colors. Af- ter passing the latter signal brakes were applied because trainman Charles Short testified that he felt air applied just an instant before the crash. The question which has arisen in Coroner Mix's mind is what was the matter with Curtis that he ran by two sets of signals and killed a flag
  that he was able to apply air upon see- ing the rear of No. 79?'
 Signals Set Against No. ;.
 Coroner Mix says that under the old rule Flagman went back from a train seventee1 poles. After the Bar Harbor expr'Is wreck the distance was made optional. The testimony shows that Flagman Tourtellot went back as soon as the train was stalled. Engineer Kennedy of 79 says he did not 'whistle out the flagman be- cause, first, he thought his stay due to the leaky air pipe would be short and secondly; he knew Tourtellot to be reliable and would get out whether "Whistled out'' or not. Kennedy said that signals behind his train were set asalnst any other train.
 
 had gone up the track and was fixing a torpedo to the rails when struck by No. 5 with a force which sent the body into a ditch a long distance away.
 The coroner says that upon going to the wreck he found a gang foreman with a piece of broken air pipe which he ordered saved. The coroner had this today and sent it to the interstate commerce commission inquiry. MT. Mix will close his inquest after exam ming several witnesses, mostly railroad men, who are at the federal inquiry.
 Victims Improving.
 The condition of about twenty wreck victims who remain in hospitals was reported today as excellent. Frank McNamara of Ansonia. who yesterday was in a grave state, has rallied finely from shock. and in spite of a punctured lung his relatives have been told that he will recover. The final list of dead will probably stand at ten.
 The representatives of the inter state commerce commission inves- tigating the wreck who sat as a board were H. W. Belnap, chief of the di- vision of safety. F. A. Howard. spe- cial agent, G. F. Ellis, signal expert J. & Hawley and J. P. McArdle, Public utilities Commits sioner c. c. Elwell and Vice Presi- dent A. R. Whaley and General Man ager c. L. Bardo of the New Haven road sat also by invitation.
 Three Minutes Separate Trains.
 Paul Sterling, division engineer, OK plained a diagram of the scene of the wreck, and on it were marks to show conditions immediately after the wreck. c. P. Melick, signal man at Tower 73. the Woodmont tower To- cated east of the wreck, on duty Tues day, consulting his time sheet showed that train 79 (the Connecticut River SpeciaD passed the tower at 11:19 a. m., at 36 miles an hour.
 The freight train which was involv- ed in the wreck passed the tower a a rate of 15 to IS miles an hour. Train 5, the extra which ran into the 1 express passed the tower at 11:22 at 1 a 35 miles an hour rate.
 Was there much smoke from the | freight engine?" asked MT. Belnap. l The witness could not say. |
 Asked as to the position of the | signals he said that he did not notice ! passed Then he noticed they were 1 set at danger. Witness explained that | the signals were automatic and not | connected with the tower.
 Signals Dependable Previously.
 The witness said he had been sta toned at the tower since August 1914, and had not known of any fail ure of the signals to work. He would have known of it as it would have l been called to his attention. The | witness said trains not infrequently passed his tower three minutes apart when they were late.