The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-04-09 00:00:00

Ely tour4ritige lt/serber.

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1870.

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

The Board of Trade is notoriously tardy in
affording public information, but when it does
publish its statistical facts they deserve full at-
tention. It is only now, after the turn of the
first quarter of the year 1870, that we have the
official returns relative to railway accidents ilur-
lug the year 1809. These returns are certainly
rather startling. !faring the past year there
were 321 persons killed in railway accidents, and
1,232 were injurml. It will readily be supposed
that the class who sutler most severely from
railway imeidents are those employed on the
railways, hut the proportion of casualties arising
from the carelessness of the sufferers is remark-
able. Of companies servants or people in the
employ of aoutractors, no less than 129 (out of
321) were killed :and 52 injured by their own
want of caution. This can readily be accounted
for from the well-known fact that " familiarity
breeds contempt," that familiarity with danger
induces comparative indifference to, if not con-
tempt of it. That the occupation is dangerous
is proved not only by the slaughter just alluded
to, but by the fact that among the same class of
persons 22 were killed and 90 injured from
causes beyond their own control. Some conclu-
sions that may be drawn from this fact are inc
vitable —that the men should be fairly paid,
which is certainly not always the case; that
their duties should not be so long and so compli-
cated as they are on many railways; and that
it ought to he considered an imperative duty on
the part of the railway companies to afferd sonic
compensation to widow and orphans of sufferers,
and this should be done on a definite and recog-
nised system, while the men themselves should
subscribe to a compensation fund. We are
aware that both these things are done to some
extent, but compensation may well be extended
and systematised. In cases of death the rela-
tives of a railway employee can, of course, as
readily bring an action for compensation as any
one else; but in ease of accident of a nature not
to disable the sufferer from future employment
he would be rather a bold man who would attack
the company that employs him, which would not
only entail his dismissal but his being tabooed
by other companies. There is another conside-
with regard to accidents to railway employees,
and that is that we never get at the whole truth.
The companies are not bound by Act of Parlia-
ment to report all the accidents that happen to
this class of persons, and many an accident is
hushed up. Could we have all the facts it would
give force to the remarks we have just made
with regard to compensation.
If these returns are to be relied on as a crite-
rion, more passengers are killed from their own
want of caution than from causes beyond their
own control, for there were twenty-two of the
former, and only seventeen of the latter. But
it is rather strange that the number of the non-
fatal tomidents that are :beyond the control of
the sufferers is immensely greater than those
which arise from the misconduct or want of cau-
tion of the victims. There were last year 1,043
of the former, and only seventeen of the latter.
This extraordinary proportion is by no means
creditable to railway management, and in fact it
shows that in minor matters there is a great deal
of mismanagement. Level crossings, as has
always been the case, are the scenes of a large
proportion of railway casualties. Last year 23
persons were killed and three injured at those
crossings. It is impossible to avoid the couclu-
sion that this must be the result of carelessness
on the part of the companies, of those who have
the charge of the crossings, or of those who
unwarrantably cross without being sure that no
train is arriving. As to one railway crossing
another on the level, it ought never to have been
allowed.

The classification of accidents to railway
trains is important. The highest proportion out
of 116 accidents to passenger trains is that of
64 representing collisions between passenger
trains and ether trains, chiefly goods trains and
separate engines. Irregularity appears to be
the chief cause of this. There is as comparative
certainty connected with passenger trains which
does not hold good with goods traffic or the dis-
patch of a separate engine; but why the most
rigid care should not be exerted in connection
with every train we cannot understand. That
there is not the same care and regularity in the
one case as in the other has been frequently
proved in evidence. A larg, proportion of acci-
dents also i that of 21 trains getting off the
rails. Surely there most be something wrong
here, either mechanically in the structure of the
wheels and the rails, in the management of the
points, or in some other way.
_

Looking at the whole return of the railway
department of the Board of Trade, and making
allowance for the fact that all the acciaeuts are
certainly not reported to the board, the sum total
of fatal and other accidents is certainly a pain.
ful fact. But we must bear in mind that these
casualties are really very small compared with
the immense amount of railway travelling all
(lay and every day throughout the year. There
is no doubt that railway accidents are far rarer
than accidents on the road used to be in the old
coaching days. compared with the number who
travel. But this is no reason why railway cas
ualties should not be diminished to a minimum,
and they certainly might be decreased by more
efficient supervision, and by having in every case
a thoroughly competent working stall, fairly
paid, rigidly superintended. and not overworked
the latter being a notoriously weak point.
. . -

Intimately connected with railway accidents
is railway compensation. The existing law on
this subject has been sadly abused. Gr.ssly
fair ana extravagant claims have been made upon
railway companies, and juries have frequently
shown it willingness to sole with claimants, for
no better reason than that companies are rich—
though their divends do not always Miow this.
It his long beea felt that some modification of
this law is advisable. Mr. Denison, it is under-
stood, intends to move, after the Easter recess,
for a select committee to inquire into the opera-
tion of Lord Campbell's Act, and that Govern-
ment will not oppose the appointment of such a
committee. Should it be appointed there will
be no want of maple facts to show that some-
thing like equal justice and system is wanted in
assessing damages for railway accidents. The
principle of compensation for injury is fair
enough, but there ought to be some guarantee
against extrAvagant and vindictive damages.

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