The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-09-03 00:00:00

2e ,itourinitige Obete

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1887.
THE DANGERS OF THE RAIL.

HEREIN we do not allude to such dangers of
railway travelling as that to which painful
attention has been called by the outrage the
other evening near Shrewsbury,
by a brutal fellow, upon an unprotected
young lady. The disagreeableness and the
actual danger encountered by girls and
women in travelling alone among strange
men, with the possibility of being left the
sole female passenger at any roadside station,
could be easily avoided were the continental
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plan of isolating ladies adopted upon our
English railways. The wonder is that our
enterprising companies do not emulate their
compeers across the Channel, and set up a
system of reserving carriages for "Dames,"
such as one sees in so many European
countries. That such a proceeding is highly
desirable is proved by the diffidence felt by
young aladies in going a journey without
escort, and demonstrated with striking force
by every fresh outrage which occurs under
. the present regime. Perhaps if the next
friends of every young woman assailed were

to clam and recover heavy compensation
from the railway companies in respect of any
molestation received on a journey, directors
would speedily be ordering carriages to be
constructed, or at any rate reserved, for
ladies alone. It has been severely said that
it require a director to be killed on a level
crossing before the management of the line
will recognise the necessity for the erection
of a bridge; perhaps it is similarly neces-
sary that the wife or daughter of a railway
magnate should suffer some shocking out-
rage while travelling without the accompani-
ment of a gentleman or elderley lady friend
63f0re the railway powers that be consider i
incumbent upon them to secure the safety
of their fellow-passengers by providing car-
ria;es in which they limy re ich their destin-
ation free from the dauger of assault or pro-
secatiun iy any unscrupulous or disagreeabe
fellow who may join the train at some sta-
tion intervening between the starting point
and the endlof the journey. We trust, how-
ever, now that public attention is aroused,
we shall soon hear that some of the great

trunk lines contemplate the roservin-g of
compartments on all trains for ladies alone.
Competition will then soon force the remain-
ing lines to follow suit. It is not this par-
ticular point which we have here selected
for comment, neither do we purpose now to
dwell upon the absence on our English lines
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of man); contrivances for the comfort and
convenience of passengers which may be met
with on any well-regulated Continental or
American railway. What we could now
consider are the dangers of the rail dealt
with under the head of accidents, a Report
on which, taking cognisance of all the eel.
isions and mishaps of last year, has just
been issued. It is pleasing to be assured,
though one is every now and again shocked
by the news of some sad calamity, that the
• preventable dangers of trio rail are very few
indeed; that, in fact, the traveller's life is
hardly ever in less danger than when he is
-taking a railway journey. An examination
- of the figures in the report referred to makes
Lt clear that the chances are 108 millions to

one against a railway passenger being killed
by causes beyond his or her own control ;
and ibis almost a million and a half to one
against the passenger receiving any sort of
injury, serious or slight in transit. The ac
cidents that do happen occur mostly through
the heedlessness of those who suffer or from
their downright infringement of the regu-
lations set forth in every carriage for the
purpose of securing their safety. Of these
the majority arise through joining or lgav-
ing trains when in motion, a custom very
much in vogue in London and all the great
towns where business men use the rail often
for the short journey between their sub-
urban homes and their city shops or offices.
As the difference between danger and safety
Ls but a matter of a secoad or two in such
oases, those who ran the risk of losing life or
limb by leaping from a train immediately
upon its approaching the arrival platform
are very foolish indeed. Proper action on
to part of railway officials in closing the
barriers well before a train's departure m.i.y
always prevent passengers attempting to go'
into the carriageaafter the engine has started
kaather fruitful cause of accident is the
leaning over the floors of carriages when the
train is speeding athig. Many mishaps oc-
cur from this dangeioas proceeding. A pro-
jecting buttress on some road bridge or in a
tunnel will be struck by he head of the
foolish looker out, with serious, perhaps
fatal consequences; or the carriage doo? will
fly open, and the carious one be precipitated
on to the line. These dangers of the rail
may be avoided by the observance of the
regulations of traveling ; and if passengers
would only exorcise ordinary caution in this
respect, we shoald have a great deal less of
death anc: injury by accident in travelling to
cloplore. Perhaps there is no class of men
more careful of the lives of the public than
railway servants and offieials ; and nnfor-

tunately they sown to be correspondingly
careless of their own safety, familiarity with
danger in their case breeding conterept.
There is a sadly too heavy t9,to of death and
mutilation to tell every year when one
reckons the iesults of the accidents to those
in the employ of the companies, and very
much of it arises from the servants them-
selves claim; a forbidden thing to avoid the
trouble of proceeding about duty according
to rale. It is interesting and satisfactory t
note that year by year the accident roll de-
creases, showing that the dangers of the r Lit
are being in a great measure overcome by
foresight and vig,ilanca.. In 1874 one in
556,284 persons was killed, and one in
2;?6,243 injared ; wile lakit year, if We

:•_:01;-.0:, in seaso.i ticket holders, onl:, one '‘i
103,000,000 met death, and one in 1,400,00)
injury by reason of the dangers of the rail
As to railway servants the reduction in the
cident list *is also remarkable. In 1874,
,me in every 320 employed was kilted, and
)ne in ada 89 hurt. In 5386 only one in
815 rail soay servantayeceived fatal injury,
and but one in 172 suffereu from less serious
areident. Another danger of the rail that
has to he censidered is that with which the
system manaces persons other than pas-
sengers or railway servants; we refer to ac-
cidents to those of the public passing over
level crossings. Eighty—one persons were
killed and 25 injured at crossings of this
kind last year ; a very serious increase on
ih3 record of the year preceding. This, we
contend, should be avoided by the Board of
Trade compelling every railway company to
abolish level crossings altogether wherever
their existenee constitutes a public danger.
Collisions are the most frequent causes of ac-
cident, and these have often arisen from such
nnpreventable circumstances as dense fog
and miA Aof number instances, however,
are reported in which signalmen and drivers
have been to blame ; and their mistakes
have been dealt with on their merits, and all
possible steps taken to prevent a repetition
of the consequent disaster. In four cases of
serious collision, had the continuous brake
been in use, accident might have been
avoided. Surely this is argument enough
for the compulsory use of that brake. It is,
as has been shown, satisfactory indeed to
note that accidents incident to railway
travelling, are so comparatively few; yet
sufficient has been said to prove that with
greater caution on the part of the public,
and a little more consideration and vigilance
on the part of railway managers and servants
the dangers of the rail might be materially
diminished.