New Britain herald., 1916-04-03

coring Wounded After Go
 Says Public Utilities Commis
 Caustic Report Filed Today.
 Hartford. April 3.-Failure neer w. R. Curtis of the secon to obey the signals was the l cause of the rear end co1lis passenger trains on the New New Haven and Hartford rail Milford on February 22, last. ing to the finding Of the Com public utilities commission ma lie today. Eleven persons To lives and about fifty others wi jured as a result of the ram the Connecticut River Express special train, the engineer oi was w. R. Curtis. The finding The facts in this case clean that the primary cause of thI dent was the failure of the end to obey the signals. The reed this office disclose that five di| passenger train accidents occI 1 the New York, New Haven arI i ford railroad in the last feT (those at Bridgeport, Westporl ford, North Haven and MilfoI were largely, if not entirely, man failures. In every case ginemen disregarded and ran nals set against him, causing l ments or collisions with train1 should study Control Dex| 1 "These acts of omission or sion were, of course, not wig | were incident to universal E frailty. and the disastrous rH 1 such acts cannot be entirely ed by the substitution or adH l other human clements. In m4 1 however automatic mechanicSA i provide a successful preventN I this connection we call atte G and lay particular stress upon gestions of our engineer M 1 TrumbulD pertaining to 1 train control devices. We M matter has not been given M | full constructive study and eN | tation on the part of the raiff @ pany that the necessities wa i fact. demand.
 ''The two trains involved cident left New Haven only N utes apart, the second train A Woodmont signal tower (6 N west of New Haven and near 8 of the accident), three minu the first train. The close these trains has been the ! considerable comment and h @ a feeling in the minds that it was the primary ca accident in not affording N time for the flagman on
 train to go back far enougi M protect his train.
 Hand Signals Not Rel
 Train movements have 8 1 governed either by hand
 mechanically operated sign
 signals are not as reliable
 naIs and on four track "a likely to be confused with tended for other trains.
 ton of track west of New
 which these trains were be XXI ed was equipped with mo M matic block signals whlcf B ceded to be one of the m W systems for keeping tram
 the same direction a sate apart. These signals wei
 set and the caution signal
 to the engineman of the s A when about one and one behind train No. 79 (the
 River Express) warning h W was nearing an occupied D
 bring his train under
 pared to stop before passt
 signal, which, in this cas
 stop signal guarding the
 which train No. 79 was
 Must Obey Block si
 If automatic block si
 erly displayed are obeyed
 possibility of a rear end q
 if not obeyed the fiagma1
 might be of no avail irr 1 the spacing or time inter trains at the starting poin trains left New Haven
 twenty minutes apart, ar unexpected reason the s
 leading train was reduces nassed Woodmont tower l minutes ahead of the fol
 and was stopped by a bro
 the collision would have
 vided the engineman of
 ing train disregarded thu
 against him
 "In this case both tr
 tained their schedule spe
 point of the accident and
 greater interval of time
 first and second train wo
 lowed the fiagman of
 an opportunity to go bacl
 to protect his train prov
 nals were obeyed, but tn
 trains at the starting poir
 antee that that spacing
 tained or that the follow
 not run into the leading
 tablished, if the engine ma
 lowing train disregards
 signals afforded bk
 1natic block signal syste
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