Mary Edith Daulton, Administratrix of the Estate of Donald Leroy Daulton, Deceased v. Southern Pacific Company, a Corporation

Donald LeRoy Daulton, a Southern Pacific brakeman of the Shasta division of the company, was killed on October 6, 1952, in the course of his employment near the Wocus siding, which is located about three miles from Klamath Falls, Oregon.

In the moments immediately preceding his death he was acting as the “head” or “front end” brakeman on a five car work train. The train was moving northerly on a main line track to get on a siding and out of the way of two freight trains that were scheduled to pass each other at Wocus. As the train moved slowly forward at perhaps four miles an hour Daulton was standing on the right hand foot-board (engineer’s side). Before entering the siding, the train was to stop for Daulton to manually throw the switch to permit entry into the siding.

Obviously, from the testimony of various trainmen, it would have been better practice for Daulton to have ridden in the cab of the engine, but on the other hand, he may have been riding the footboard to watch for tools possibly left on the track by workers and to warn the workers, as he saw them, about the other trains which would be along soon.

There were no eyewitnesses. No one knows positively what caused…