The Ashtabula Accident

Below will be i'cmnd tlio verdict of the Ooroner's jury as to the canse and respousibility for the accident : Tliat the fall of the bridge vras the result of defects and errore made in dosigning, construoting and crecting it ; tliat a grcat defect, and onc which ippears in maiiy parts of the structure, was the d;puhdence of every mom ber f or its efficiënt aoflofl SM the probability that all or nearly all the othei's "S'ohld rctnin their position nnd do the duty for wíiifcii they were designed, instead of giving to each member a poeitive connection with the rest, which nothing bnt a dircet rupture could ever. The members of each trnss were, instead of Iwing fastened together, rested one npon the otiicr, as illuxtratcd by the followlng particulars : The deficiënt cross-section of póHÍOfiñ of the " T " chordK and some of the main bracea, and the inuuffleient strength and bad arrangement of both the horizontal and vertical transversea bracing in the construetion of the angle blocks, as finally modified, without euffloient higs or Hangen to keep the ends of the main and'counter bracee f rom slipping out of place ; in the construction of the pajeking and yokes used in binding together the' main a'nö eonnter braces at the points where thfey crosséd eaCh othsr ; in the shinnnáng of the'top chords to compénsate the deficiënt lcngth .of some of their membere ; in theplacing during üie proces of erection of thick beams where the plan rflqnired thin ones and thin ones where it required thlck ones, That the railway company used and continuea to use this bridge for about eleven years, during all of which time a careful innpoction by a dttihpotnt bridge engineer could not JJave faiied t'j (iiKeover 9.11 the defects. For the ncglc'St Of . sHfil eafeftd fagpeotlon the railway company s alone ífcsponsibíe ; that the respönsibility óf this fearful disaster and its Consequent loss of life rests upon thfc raïhvay nupany, which, by its chief executivé öfficer, planned and eie'cted this bridge ; that the 6'ars in which the deceased passenger were carried into the chasm were not heated by heating apparatus so constructed that the fire in them will I lie immediately extinguished whenever the cars are thrown from the track and overturned ; that their faihu-e to comply with the plain reqm'rements of the law places the responsibility of the origin of the fire upon the railroad company (see act of May 14, 18G9); that the iesponsibility for not putting out the fire at the time it flrst made its appearance in the wreek rests upon those who were the flrst to arrive at the scène of the disaster, and who seemed to have been so overwhehned by the fearful ealamity that they lost all presence of miad, and f aileil to use the means at hand, consisting of the steam pump in the pumping house and the fire engine " Lake Shorc,'' and its hofie. Avhich might have been attached to tlie steam pump in time to save life. The steamer belouging to the Frre Department, and also the "Protection" fire engine, were hauled more than a mile through a blinding snow-stohn nd over rondu rendered almost impassablfc' by driftcd snow, and aiTived on the ground too late to save human life ; but nothing should have prevented the chief engineer from making all possible efforts to extinguían what fire there remained. For his failure to do this he is responsible. That the persons deceased whose bodies were identified, and those whose bodies and parts of bodies were unidentified, oamo to their deaths by the precipitation of the aforcsaicl cars in whieh Üifly wère riding into the cliasm in the a1ley of Aslitabula creek. loft by the falling of the bridge as aforesaid, and the erushing and burning of the cars aforesaid, for all of which the railway eompany is responsable. ■