Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-03-30
FIXING BLAME
FOR DISASTER
Two Iny igations of Rail
road 3 feck at Amherst,
Under Way.
SOns ! OF INJURED
ARE FATALLY HURT
Several May Die 81 injuries
" ssvsn sedies Rsnevsd Frsas
Wrsek and Raiiread OFFICIALS ssy
AhAavs Been Recovered Rsspenst.
bllity For Wrsek Rests Dstwssn
To~srman and EnsInssr,.

Cleveland. O.. March 50. - WYth
twenty-seven bodies recovered frorn
yesterdays wreck OF three New YORK
Central trains at Amherst. attention
today was turned to the severai Ia.
vasttsations that were put under ways
oy federal state and railroad authort-s
ties to determine responsibility for the
wreck
Representatives OF the interstate
commerce commission. the utilities
commission OF Ohio and various de-
partment heads of the New York Gem
tral were conducting investigations II,
Cleveland and at other points IN the
vicinity Of the wreck. 53S
Coroner Charles Carver, OF Lorafn5
county. planned to begin an inquest
at Elyria into the death Of the wreck
victims and the causes leading thereto.
..-.-,51. Blame Net Fixed.
The question OF whether the 10.
called death coach, on train No. ss.
was OF modern steel construction ID
claimed by New York Central officials.
or was mainly Of wood construction.
promised to be an important feature of
the inquiry. -'5 II
Railroad officials were divided a. 10
whether the blame should be placed
on the towerman. who, 1t Is alleged by
some officials. was asleep and failed
to give the proper signal or upon tho
engineer. who either failed to eco the
signal or exceeded HIS ORDERS
s,2@ Msrs Fatalikiss, Feared. sg
OF the moro than forty persons me-
.jured In the wreck, several Ware said
to be In precarious condition to-s
day and more fatsliftes were feared.
Railroad officials ~. that only twAnty-
|a0Nen bodies, hAyos si,ssn Fscoysesa -ass6a
they regard II a. unlik4ay THAI more
.bodtea3 VIII @ssb sbs recovsrSd. unct9iciaI
estimates place the dead ~ thirty.
The two men ut whom most sof the.
questions were to beE directed at the
inquiry today were Hermann r. Hess.
engineer Of tho second section or No.
IS. and Towerman H. N. Ernst, ofe
Amherst. 5s
Engineer saw No Signal.
Engineer d. w. Leonard. of the first
section Of train No. ss, which pulled
the death car" ASSERTS he stopped his
train on, a signal originating in Ernst,s
tower. Engineer Hess said he saw no
signal as he brought his special boom-
ing along at fifty mile speed thres
minutes later. -: !.
Ernst said he set no signal to ston
the first sectioh. II Ernst is held
culpable the blame win trace back TO
baby's tiny crib in the Ernst homG
at Elyria. The baby was born Sunday
night Since that time Ernst has had
little sleep. railroad officials said. m
Denies He sIspt.
Ernst, the towerman. stoutfy denied
that he was asleep or had been I'm
capacitated by loss Of sleep. The sig.
nails simply failed to work. he said.
H. w. Belnap. representing the In
terstate commerce commission. opened
the federal investigation. fF<t
A. r Ingalls,. general superintend-
ent Of the New York Central west OF
Belnap all that the railroad officials
had learned Of the cause Of the acoi-
dent. -~s 0.fs teS 2
The Interstate commerce commis-
sion representatives, after conferrins
with railroad officials and others. an-
nounced they will go to Amherst to-
day to investigate the wreck. s
More Dead identified.
The name OF John Hearn. Of Gai-
lipolis. O.. was today stricken from
the list Of dead. Hearn's father tele-
graphed today saying his son was not
on any Of the trains. &
Additional fdentincations OF dead to-
day were: f .z+43 g. !.
Harry White. Pullman porter. Chs
cago. ...
d. H. Boyle. Hillsville, Pa.
DR.. J. NJ Grau. Jerry City. @.
- Fred wean, address unknown. 81
With the elimination OF the name
OF John Hearn. there remained today
six bodies Of men and four OF women !