The Green Hornet Street Car Disaster by Craig Allen Cleve

Author:Craig Allen Cleve [Cleve, Craig Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, General, Transportation, Public Transportation, Railroads
ISBN: 9781609090586
Google: ga28DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2012-06-15T01:10:38+00:00

As CTA officials discussed Paul Manning’s actions, Mamie Manning did her best to defend her husband and answer some of the charges against him.

“They’re trying to put it all on Paul,” she told reporters. “They’re trying to lay this accident (on) him.”30

Reporters asked Mrs. Manning about the allegations that her husband’s trolley was traveling at 30 miles per hour when it entered the switch. Her answer touched on a familiar theme.

“He had to make his time. He always had to make his time. Well, now he has made it. They take off runs, and then they drive the men to make them keep their schedules. He was always harping on that. If they make their time, don’t think they’re not speeding.”31

Ray Medley, Manning’s brother-in-law, took a more practical position:

“Why would he be going 30 mph—even if he were going straight ahead—on a downhill grade ahead of him so near to Sixty-third Street, a dangerous intersection?”32

Medley was referring to the fact that Manning was less than 100 yards from his stop at the safety island just north of the intersection of 63rd and State streets. Near that point, State Street began its downward slope toward the viaduct.

“He would have slid right across. He had to stop at Sixty-third.”33

For the first time, Medley suggested that Manning might not have been at fault.

“I heard talk down at the barn that he was supposed to be the first car to go through—that the water under the viaduct had receded enough. Did the flagman really wave him down—or wave him to go ahead?”34

Other motormen defended Manning when they complained that their schedules together with dense loads of passengers often made it necessary for them to speed. In the Chicago Sun-Times, on May 28, several motormen, conductors, and other CTA officials argued over the expectations regarding schedules.

One motorman, an eight-year veteran, said he and others “…take chances we wouldn’t take otherwise to keep a schedule. Anybody would have accidents at the speeds we have to go.”35

A conductor quoted in the same article said he sometimes feared for his own safety as motormen along his route did their best to make a 7½-mile route in 43 minutes.

“Any sane person would know that the speed of the cars should be cut.”36

Any act of God or minor traffic inconvenience—bad weather, a long stop light, or a particularly busy corner with many boarding passengers—could knock a motorman off schedule.

“Then we have to start taking chances. They keep after us to make the schedule.”37

CTA dispatchers, supervisors, and other officials interviewed for the piece took issue with the notion that schedules were expected to be kept at all costs. One official said that safety never took a backseat to schedules. He also disagreed with the motormen’s idea that they had to put on excessive speed to make schedules.

A dispatcher said he knew of no CTA directive compelling motormen to exceed the speed limit to stay on schedule. But he also said that with the new, smooth-riding Green Hornets, motormen might not even realize they were speeding.

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