Railroad Accidents Part 1

Railroad Accidents.

by R. C. Richards.

Introduction

Railroad Accidents

Their Cause and Prevention

Much has been said and written during recent years about the increasing number of railroad accidents in this country--their cause and what action should be taken by the government, the railroads and the employees to reduce them and the consequent loss of life and limb resulting therefrom. Believing that if the cause of our many accidents were properly understood more care would be taken by the corporations, employees and persons at fault to reduce the number, I shall try to point out in the following pages what investigation has shown me to be the cause of many accidents and how their reoccurrence could, I think, be prevented.

In the transaction of the business of a railroad its first and highest duty is to the pa.s.sengers, to carry them safely and speedily; next, to take care of the property entrusted to it for transportation, and for which it is practically an insurer against everything but the act of G.o.d or the public enemy, and deliver it with reasonable dispatch to the consignee in practically the same condition as that in which it is received.

It is a self-evident proposition that the nearer the railroads come to performing this duty, the fewer losses and claims for damages they will have to pay, and, as a matter of course, the more money there will be left with which to pay wages, interest, dividends, and make improvements. So it behooves all, who are working for those wages, to do everything they can to help carry on the business properly and correctly in order that the interest of the companies hiring them, as well as their individual interest, will be subserved, and for the more important reason of causing as little suffering, pain, and sorrow to those who by accident may be maimed or killed, which always brings trouble and sorrow to the victim as well as to his family, and frequently results in untold suffering and privation to the widows and children.

The report of the Interstate Commerce Commission shows that for the year ending June 30, 1904, there were

441 pa.s.sengers killed.

3,632 employees killed.

839 not trespa.s.sers killed.

5,105 trespa.s.sers killed.

9,111 pa.s.sengers injured.

67,067 employees injured.

2,499 not trespa.s.sers injured.

5,194 trespa.s.sers injured.

Making 10,017 killed and 83,871 injured, or a total of killed and injured of 93,888, many times over the casualties of our last war, and all the roads seem to have done their share of this havoc.

We should strive to see if in the coming year we cannot reduce the number, so that the casualties reported, and consequent loss to the companies, will be reduced, considering the number of employees, mileage, earnings, number of trains run, persons and property transported, and the territory traversed, and for the purpose of bringing this matter before you in a proper light I will call attention to a few of the many accidents which have recently occurred, which, with proper care and the use of good judgment, would have been avoided and fewer persons left to go through life crippled, fewer homes made desolate and fatherless, and sometimes motherless, and at the same time the money which has been necessarily paid out to settle the claims saved to the companies, and, consequently, just so much more money left in the treasury to pay for wages, interest, dividends, and betterments.

Taking into consideration the safety appliances installed by the railroads since 1898, the improvement in track and equipment, and the increase in wages paid, with even the same degree of care on the part of employees, the number of accidents should have decreased, but on the contrary they show an actual percentage of increase higher than that of earnings, and if the employees are onto their jobs they ought to and must find a way to reduce the number of such cases and consequent expense to the companies.

For the purpose of showing that the employees are the persons most vitally interested in this matter, as upon them falls the major part of the fatalities and injuries resulting from such accidents and upon themselves and families the suffering and pain which always comes after them, while upon the companies falls the immense and increasing financial drain, following their wakes, as well as loss of prestige and public criticism which necessarily follow, and which is increasing every day, I have prepared the following statement.

1. The percentage of employees to the number of pa.s.sengers transported during the year ending June 30, 1904, was one for each 552.

2. The percentage of pa.s.sengers killed (441) to the whole number of persons reported killed in all cla.s.ses (10,017) was 4 per cent.

3. The percentage of pa.s.sengers injured (9,111) to the whole number of persons reported injured in all cla.s.ses (83,871) was 11 per cent.

4. The percentage of pa.s.sengers injured (9,111) to the number transported (715,419,682) was about one in each 80,000.

5. The percentage of pa.s.sengers killed (441) to the number transported was about one in every 1,600,000.

6. The percentage of employees injured (67,067) to the whole number of employees (1,296,121) was about one in every 19.

7. The percentage of employees killed (3,632) to the whole number employed (1,296,121) was about one in 360.

8. The percentage of employees killed (3,632) to the whole number reported killed in all cla.s.ses (10,017) was about 36 per cent.

9. The percentage of employees injured (67,067) to the whole number reported injured in all cla.s.ses (83,871) was 80 per cent.

10. The percentage of employees (300,000) engaged in the hazardous part of the business such as train, engine and yardmen to the whole number employed (1,296,121) was 25 per cent.

11. Percentage of those engaged in the hazardous part of the work, who were killed (2,343), to the whole number of employees reported killed (3,632), was 64 per cent.

12. The percentage of those engaged in the hazardous part of the work who were injured (32,345) to the whole number of employees injured (67,067) was 48 per cent.

An examination of the statistics published by the Commission also shows that the number of accidents depends not so much on the actual length of track of a railroad in miles, but upon the density of its traffic and of the population of the territory through which it runs, for ill.u.s.tration take one division on a system that runs through a thickly settled country, that has five per cent of the actual mileage of the system and fifteen per cent of the train mileage, and another division in the same system that runs through a spa.r.s.ely settled country, that has ten per cent of the actual mileage of the system and five per cent of the train mileage, and it is a well-known fact that the percentage of accidents on the former will be many times that on the latter;

That the heavier the traffic the greater need there is of more care being taken in employing and educating the right kind of men to operate the trains; and

That with denser traffic there should come more and better supervision to insure observance of the rules adopted for the safe operation of trains and that the increase in quant.i.ty and quality of that supervision should at least equal in ratio the increase in traffic.

Indeed, I believe that when this is done many of the troubles and difficulties the railroads now labor under will pa.s.s away, and that the additional expense caused by such increase will be saved many times over by a general reduction in operating expenses, especially in waste and damage.

Accidents should be divided into four cla.s.ses:

_First._ Unavoidable accidents, or those caused by the act of G.o.d, the public enemy, or by some miscreant who takes up a rail, misplaces a switch, or puts an obstruction on the track.

_Second._ Accidents to pa.s.sengers, outsiders trespa.s.sing or not trespa.s.sing, caused by the carelessness or wantonness of the injured or some other person for whose act the railroad is not liable, or by the failure on the part of the State or munic.i.p.ality to make and enforce proper laws and ordinances to prevent stoning trains and trespa.s.sing on the premises and cars of the companies.

_Third._ Those caused by the want of care, foresight, or supervision on the part of the management of the company.

_Fourth._ Those caused by the carelessness, thoughtlessness, or neglect of employees.

Neither employees nor company can be held to blame or can prevent accidents resulting from the first and second causes, and fortunately for the reputation as well as the treasury of the companies over one-half of all the fatalities and a large proportion of the seriously injured come under the second cla.s.s, and until the life and limb of a trespa.s.ser (10 per cent or 1,000 of the 10,000 killed and injured on the railroads of this country every year being children under fourteen years of age) are considered to be of some value to their families and to the State, they will not only continue to occur, but will increase each year as our population and traffic grow.

Accidents caused by carelessness, thoughtlessness, or neglect of employees are the large majority of all that happen, and if we could eliminate them, or one-half of them, there would be little cause for complaint on the part of the management of the companies, or criticism on the part of the public, and the claim agent would have a bed of roses instead of the busiest and hardest worked office on the road, and I believe that when the employees really understand the matter many of them will be eliminated.

We should bear in mind that it is not the great train accidents that make the large majority of the total deaths and injuries on the railroads of this country, about which so much is said in the public press, but it is the little cases that are unheralded in the press, or in the courts, that make the totals so large; the little things that are happening every day, on every railroad in the country, which go on happening every year in the same old way, and they are the cases which could and should be avoided by the exercise of greater care and thoughtfulness--more of them come from thoughtlessness than any other cause. My experience leads me irresistibly to the conclusion that after all it is the _man_, not the safety appliance, that we must depend on to prevent accidents, as has been demonstrated by any number of cases that have occurred at points where the track has been lined with safety appliances.

The Cause

INJURIES TO Pa.s.sENGERS

Injuries to pa.s.sengers for which employees are at fault, and which could and should be avoided, result from collisions, derailments, improper handling and management of trains and stations, and I will, by way of ill.u.s.tration, cite a few cases which have occurred and tell you how, in my opinion, they might have been avoided.

We will first take those caused by collisions:

At Forest Station, April 2, in which 3 pa.s.sengers were killed and 26 injured, caused by train No. 112, upon which they were riding, being run into by engine No. 405, hauling train No. 2, Engineman Jackson, at 4 p.m.