The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-11-02
Temporary Motorman and a
Guard on Wrecked Train
Of the Brooklyn Rapid
Transit Co. Were Not Al
lowed to Furnish Bail
IDENTIFICATION WORK
is MOVING SLOWLY
The Train Was Composed of
Wooden Cars, and the We
hicles Were Reduced to
Splinters-More Than 100
Persons We're Injured

New York, Nov. with the death
toll placed at 9s by the Brooklyn police,
rigid investigations were under way to-
day by the public service commission,
District Attorney Lewis of Kings county
and Mayor Hylan, to determine the
blame for the wreck last night of a
Brighton Beach train of the Brooklyn
Rapid Transit company in the Malbone
street tunnel, Brooklyn.
Yesterdays strike of motormen and
motor switchfnen OF the company, which
was coineident with the tragedy was
settled during the early morning hours,
company officials agreeing to reinstate
twenty-nine discharged union employees.
The company previously had refused TO
obey the order of the war labor board
and take back the men
Interest in the Investigations centered
on William Lewis, motorman of the i'll.
fated train, who was arrested on a
charge of homicide at his home early to-
day, after he had fed from the scene in
terror Mayor Hylan, who visited Lewis
in the Flatbush police station soon after
his arrest, issued this statement:
Lewis admitted to me that this was
his first run over the road. He said he
was going thirty miles an hour. No man
should be allowed to run a train without
at least three months training"
President Timothy s. Williams of the
Transit company asserted that although
Al, ha
trained man" and capable of running a
train Lewis was pressed into service
yesterday, it was said, on account of
the strike.
Another phase Of to-day's investigs-
tion that attracted interest was the fact
that the train Of five cars was composed
Of wooden cars, declared to be at least
twenty-five years old Most of the cars
we're reduced to splinters. The public
service commission ordered the company
to replace its antiquated wooden rolling
stock with steel several months ago, but
the company contended war conditions
made it impossible.
Identification of the dead, the majority
of whom were local residents, progressed
slowly at the morgue to-day. Many
victims were so badly mutilated that
Identification was almost impossible.
More than one hundred persons were in
iured in the crash, according to police
estimates. and it was believed some of
these will die
All during the night thousands were
attracted to the scene of the disaster,
the greatest traffic accident in the eity's
history. Hundreds of anxious men and
Il &c nlnN 10
police stations where the bodies were
taken The bodies later were removed
to the Kings County morgue.
The striking employees of the transit
company returned to work to-day and
traffic on the Brooklyn subway and ele-
waited lines was restored to normal. Re
gret was expressed by the men that their
attempts to force settlement from the
company had resulted, indirectly, in the
wreck.
Under the terms of settlement the
company agreed to reinstate the dis
charged union employees with their se-
niority rights. In case of further dis
agreement, it was mutually agreed to
submit the differences to the public SEW
lee commission The company also
agreed to enter into an agreement with
union officials concerning better working
conditions.
William Lewis, the train dispatcher,
pressed into service as motorman, and
Samuel Russof, guard on the train,
were arraigned in police court to-day
on a charge of homicide and were held
for examination on Thursday. The mag
istrate refused to grant a request made
by an attorney for the transit company
that the defendants be admitted to bail.
Lewis told Mayor Hylan and the dis
trict attorney to-day that he went to
work at O'Clock yesterday morning as
q train dispatcher and that at 80 in
the afternoon he was assigned as mo
torman on the Brighton Beach line, be-
ing willing, after nearly twelve hours of
work. to take this new job because he
wanted to earn extra money for his fam
lily.
When his train was moving downA
grade toward the tunnel just prior to the
accident, it was going thirty miles an
hour, Lewis is alleged to have explained
to the authorities, and he was unable to
decrease its speed because the brakes
did not seem to work properly. Lewis
declared he rescued several women be-
fore he became panic stricken and fled
from the tunnel. He is 25 years old.
1t was reported that citizens com.
mittee was being organized to ask the
government TO assume federal control OF
the Brooklyn Rapid Transit,