Malbone Street Wreck - Culpability

Culpability

The BRT tried to keep service running with non-striking personnel, which included men in other unions, including the company union as well as other personnel, and made the decision to use Luciano, a crew dispatcher. There is no report that he had made other mistakes prior to the accident, though he had to negotiate difficult conditions, including other sharp curves and running on the street where other traffic and pedestrians would have added to operating hazards. He was switched onto the wrong line at the junction prior to the final approach to the tunnel, but that was due to his train lacking proper signals to inform the switch tower operator which route the train was to take. Luciano had to reverse his train in order to take the proper route, but this was done "by the book" without further incident.

In the present day, a struck transit system ordinarily closes down in an orderly fashion until the strike is resolved. But in 1918, the BRT would likely have been more criticized for not attempting to keep the system running, absent the accident.

New York City Mayor John F. Hylan and his administration placed blame on the BRT, bringing both Luciano and company officials to trial for manslaughter. With a change of venue the trial was held in Nassau County.

The prosecutorial focus required the BRT to present a coherent defense on behalf of both its officials and Luciano. Because of this, neither the proximate cause of the wreck nor the excessive speed of the train has ever been adequately explained. Luciano testified on his own behalf, contending that he was in control of the train, but the train did not respond properly, a claim belied by the BRT's own physical examination of the equipment, which showed that the brakes were in good operating order, were not placed in "emergency" application, and that other means of slowing or stopping the train, such as reversing the motors, had not been done. Since his defense focused on these contentions, other issues that could have caused him to operate the train at speed were not examined, such as his state of mind, a desire to make up time because of the earlier switching problems or his understanding of the route on which he was operating.

Ultimately all the defendants were acquitted or had the indictments eventually dropped. One official received a hung jury and was not retried. Luciano went into the real estate business and disappeared from the record.

There were at two large awards of damages awarded against BRT in the courts afterwards. Ethel Holmes the widow of George W Holmes was awarded $40,000, and Ethel Pierce was awarded $30,000.