Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners of the State of Vermont Volume 5 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 Excerpt: ...The state of Vermont was represented by J. C. Enright, state's attorney for the county of Windsor; the Central Vermont Railroad Company appeared by C. W. Witters, its attorney, and said W. H. Carter appeared by W. P. Stafford, his attorney. A preliminary inquiry into the causes of this accident was made by the clerk of the Board on the 1st day of February, 1896, and upon vote of the Board a public investigation was ordered and, for cause, continued from time to time until this day, when the parties interested appeared as above stated. It appeared from the evidence that said W. H. Carter, a peddler, approached a highway grade crossing over said railroad at a point about one and three-fourths miles north of said village of Bethel, on said 18th day of December, 1895, at a time when No. 15, a through freight train from St. Albans to White River Junction, was due at said crossing. At this point there are two highway crossings over the tracks of the Central Vermont Railroad Company known as the "Ridley Bridge crossings," and here the track passes through a rocky cut upon a sharp curve to the left. The highway approaches the crossing nearest Bethel, where the accident occurred, upon a line almost parallel to the railroad track and the view in the direction from which the train approached is obstructed by a rocky ledge. It appeared from the evidence, and the Board so finds the fact to be, that some eighty rods north of the first crossing the engineer blew the regular crossing whistle and also blew the regular crossing whistle for the crossing where the accident occurred, but that said Carter, either by reason of the location of the ledge and hill before described or because of his own inattention, failed to hear or note the approach of the train and passe...