The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-09-04 00:00:00

SIR JOHN HAWKSHAW ON RAILWAY

TRAVELLING.

Animadverting on the practical subjects embodied in Sir
John Ilawkshaw's inaugural address at the meeting of the
British Association in Bristol, last weak, The Times, in a
leader, writes :
Among the subjects mentioned by Sir John Hawk:
thaw in his Presidential Address, there was one to
which he rightly gave considerable prominence, and
which deserves a greater degree of attention than
could be accorded to it in any general review of his
observations. This subject is the safety of Railway
travelling, and the persons are few indeed whom it does
not either directly or indirectly concern. We may ex-
'pect to receive before long soine interesting information
with regard to it from the Report of the Royal Com-
mission on Railway Accidents; but in the meantime
the opinions of an eminent engineer who has made
many Railways and has practically governed some of
them are worthy of careful consideration by the public.
In reading them we seem to be admitted into the inner-
most counsels of Directors, and of those by whom Direc-
tors are ruled; and we are assisted in comprehending
the official estimate of the calamities which we are so
often called upon to record and to deplore. When
put into the briefest possible form, Sir John Hawk-
shaw's statements are to the effect that the deaths of
passengers from causes beyond their own control were
only two-thirds as numerous, in proportion to miles
travelled, in the last as in the preceding ten years ;
but that the accidents to passengers were one-ninth
more frequent in the latter than in the former. During
the same time the frequency of trains was increased
by about one-fourth, and this element in the question
would have led to a corresponding increase of
accidents if it had not been counteracted by im-
proved methods of working, by the interlocking of
points, and by the adoption of the block system. The
limit of such improvements will probably be reached
before long; the results of human error can never
be avoided; the public will not surrender any of the
facilities for transit to which they have become ,
accustomed; and accidents must eventually multiply
in proper ion to the amount, the speed, and the com-
plexity of traffic. At present they are so rare that for
all practical purposes they may be looked upon as
imaginary or unknown events. Their stated increase
is apparent only, and is chiefly due to thkcircumce
that a larger number of trifling bruises are reported
now than formerlv.': Only one passenger is injured
for every four million miles of journey; so that a per-
son may travel one hundred thousand miles a year for
forty years before an accident will be even nearly due
to him; and, to crown all, there was once a President
of the Board of Trade who thought himself safer:in a
Railway_carriage than anywhere else. "---' - -
There cannot be a doubt that these assertions will be
very consolatory td passengers, and especially to those
who commit themselves to the excursion trains of the
autumnal season. But it must not be forgotten that
even a small percentage upon an enormous sum amounts
to a considerable aggregate; and engineers would do
well if they would learn to contemplate the statistics
of Railway injuries in their naked deformity, and not
to throw them into apparent insignificance by counting
up the people who escape. According to the Return
issued by the Board of Trade in May last, no less than
1,42; persons were killed, and 5,030 injured, on the
Railways of 'the United Kingdom dming the year
1874 • and it would not be difficult to show that only a
small portion of these totals could fairly be placed to
the account of inevitable human error. We are glad.
to find that Sir John Hawkshaw frankly
_admits
the protective influence of the several improve-
ments he has named, for we have heard of more
than Railway manager who has lamented their
partial introduction, and has expressed his hope
that the line might be as safe afterwards as it had been
before. Improvements in the working of Railways are,
indeed, the things of all others the value of which