Franklin Bartle

ACCIDENT No. 27 – June 16, 1913 - Frank Bartle, Red Jacket Shaft.

Frank Bartle, English, a pipe fixer, died in the hospital at 2:30 p. m. from injuries received on the morning of this day.

Justice Fisher conducted an inquest over his body. The following witnesses testified:

Joseph Winnen: "The accident was caused by a car jumping the track and knocking out a prop that was holding up a piece of loose ground. I don't know of any reason why the car should leave the track.”

Martin Caserio, upon his oath, says:

Question: “Where do you work?”
Answer: “Red Jacket Shaft.”

Q: “What is your business?”
A: “I am Timberboss.”

Q: “Were you working there at the time Frank Bartle was injured?”

A: “Yes.”

Q. - “When was that?”
A. – “This morning, June 26th, 1913.”

Q. - “Where were you at the time?”
A. - “I was about 400 feet away from there.”

Q. – “Will you tell the jury just what you know about it?”
A. - “Frank Bartle happened to pass by me and talked with me. He had a poor light. He asked me if I had one of the wires to clean out the lamp. When he had his lamp fixed he started to walk to the slope shaft and I see he started to pull the cars from the Red Jacket shaft to the slope shaft. I said, ‘Look out and let the cars go by.’ When the cars passed where I was, and went in about 3 or 4 hundred feet, I saw the rope stop, two minutes or so after Mr. Winnen came back and called me and my crew to go in; he said there was one man on the car and the rock on him. We went in and lifted the rock and took him out, he was not right under the rock, just a little on one side."

Q. — “Who stopped the car?”
A. — “When the man that ran the engine saw it took more air, he stopped himself.”

Q. - “Which car was Frank Bartle in?”
A. - “The last car.”

Q. — “Was that the car that knocked the prop out?”
A. — “Yes, it was the front end the way the car was going; there was one chain on the front and one on the back. A man's weight would not throw the car off the track, not two men's weights; the cars were not coupled together. We find the pipe tongs right in the car. I don't know what part of the level he got in the car, he was squeezed between the car and the rock. I did not know any necessity of any new piece of timber being put in there; if there was, it would have been put in.”

Verdict: “We, the jury, find that the said Frank Bartle came to his death at the 57th level of Red Jacket Shaft, due to a car upon him, which he was riding leaving the track, this car hitting a prop which allowed some rock to fall on him, causing injuries which resulted in his death.”