New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-04-19
Medical Examiner Capt
ures Locomotive Before
ItOuits Rhode Island.
SIGNALS NOT SET,
ENGINEER SWEARS
Relief Man in Charge of Tower
Wooden Car Added to
Horrors of Wreck.
,y.... e..- co,r..pooesn, o, Tho Tribune

L
westerly, r. T., April 18.-Investiga-
ton into the cause Of the wreck a.
Bradford station last night, in which
FIVE passengers we're killed and thirty
three injured, SINNERS down tonight
20 a question Of men and signals.
DR.. Michael II. Scanlon, the medical
examiner who conducted the inquiry
among New Haven Railroad employees
right after the crash occurred says
that he does not believe that Charles
II. Mansfield, engineer on the Gilt
Edge Express, was responsible. Mans
aeld swears that he found the distant
s,onal clear as he rushed into the
block above Bradford, making hfty-hve
miles an hour.
Engine Kidnapping Feared.
"The truth about this wreck will
have 70 come out" said DR.. Scanlon
late tonight. Nothing will be COW
cred up, If I can prevent It. l shall
go before the Coroner tomorrow and
tell my story. am liable 20 be SEN
sational witness.
at is due TO my watchfulness that
the crippled engine on the local train
is now under lock and key in yard
midway. six miles from New London.
II had had any idea that the rail-
road would try 70 sneak the locomo-
tive out of Rhode Island while / was
helping attend TO the dying and in
i,red last night I would have had
locks put on the wheels. They told
me that would find the engine down
the track a few hundred yards. Well
walked down q mile below Bradford
before / discovered that I bad been
fooled"
HF. McManus, the man in the tower
is positive that he threw both the dis-
tant and the home signals against the
Gilt Edge as soon as he was ordered 10
renort TO New London that the local
train. No. 633, could not make this
Mace on account of engine trouble
Whether the signals worked or not
McManus does not know.
Wooden Cars Fed Flames
Quite apart from the dispute over
the signals. which is being investigated
by Coroner Everett A. Kingsley ana
the state Public Utilities Commission,
the following facts had direct bearing
on the accident:
The engine on the local train, after
Emping along from Providence, finally
went absolutely dead before It could
haul its burden of the main line on 70
The siding at Bradford;
Had not the rear coach on the local
train been made Of wood and equipped
with obsolete acetylene gas tanks the
wrcckage would not have caught fire
the instant the heavy express locomO-
tive pulled back out of the debris.
The fog and the slippery rails are
considered of secondary Importance.
On a clear night, with sand on the
rails, Mansfield could not have stopped
the Gilt Edge, travelling fifty-fve miles
an hour, within a space Of 200 feet.
you'll never make me believe that
the engineer on the express was TO
blame" said DR.. Scanlon ~ his home
here. 81 know that the railroad Of
fcials say it is impossible for the
home signal TO be set against him
and the distant clear. But they have
admitted 20 me that defective wire
might cause such q condition.
Where Was the Local Train?
where was the local train when the
wreck occurred? That's the important
factor 20 be considered We know that
the train halted right az Bradford de-
pot. The fact that the engine was on
the siding when the rear coach was
telescoped by the express shows that
the local train had moved"
In the thirteen months that McManus
had been in the employ of the New
Haven Railroad he had eight jobs. &C
cording 10 Dr.. Scanlon's investigation.
lie was not the regular man TO relieve
John r. McCluskey, who. as the rail
road men say, had been Seventeen
Years in the tower" McManus was on
duty from II p. m. Sunday 70 Z 3. m
Monday, and had just gone on duty
again at o'clock last night
Here Is McManus's story, ms taken
down by DR.. Scanlon: The $50 came
into the block above Bradford at 1884
%. m. u was twenty-seven minutes
late. The engineer reported low steam
and .old me TO telegraph the dis
hatcher in New London that he could