Saturday, August 21, 2021

Train Engineer Charged With Speeding, Aug. 19, 1921

A.C.L. Engineer Tried on Charge of Speeding

Fayetteville, Aug. 18—a case perhaps unique in North Carolina court annals was tried before Mayor E.R. MacKethan of this city, when H. Arnold, an Atlantic Coast Line engineer, was brought before the court on a charge of speeding within the city limits. The case was dismissed by the mayor, who cautioned the engineer not to repeat the dangerous practice. Arnold contended that he had his engine under perfect control and that it could have been stopped at signal of danger. Arnold was driving a yard engine.

The alleged offense occurred at an early morning hour. Patrolman Hall, who made the arrest, told the court that the engine passed the Franklin street crossing at an excessive rate of speed while Thomas Wright, the railroad gateman at the Hay street crossing testified that he hardly had time to lower the gates before the locomotive reached that street. T.L. Evans, conductor of the yard engine, and members of the crew, testified that the gates were safely lowered before the locomotive reached the crossing and that the engine was at all times under control.

From the front page of The Dunn Dispatch, August 19, 1921

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