The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-05 00:00:00

RAILWAY STATISTICS.

ACCIDENTS.

"Fearful Railway Accident," "Loss of Life on a Rail-
way," " List of Killed and Wounded," " T i rible Disas-
! ter"—such are the headings of some of the sensation jour-
nals, which one would almost suppose they kept in stereo-
type, so often are they repeated. In the absence of horrible
murders and terrific battles in America, nothing seems so
popular with the sensation class of publications as an acci-
dent upon a railway. Every trifling incident of this sort is
magnified into something calculated to horrify the weak and
nervous, and to create an impression amongst some who
knew no better that railway travelling is attended with
manifold dangers.
Fortunately, the official tables of the Board of Trade
enable us to gauge the extent of accidents upon railways.
These official statistics demonstrate that it is not more clan-
geroustloesta railway
thehanto
estirtebeyte, a fireside at home,berfe
and far
passengers by railway in 1862 was 180,500,000. Of these
tlhBeoe,seolos,owooe
were
a s
ks
Inl
egde r sh,
yexactlyx
t2r6a
rlost a the e i
ere
ivsei se
n;
wa nhdi
eoht
occurred in a tunnel near Winchburg, on the Edin
burgh and Glasgow Railway, between two trains com-
ing from opposite directions ; an accident, we be.
lieve, which never occurred before, and which, it
is to be hoped, will never occur again. Deducting
resulteglad deathoc
of
to
this accident, extraordinary in all its circuenstanees, it
wn
would result that only 11 passengers met their deaths from
railway accidents in 1862; but even taking the numbers as
they stand
in
trsaoskl. W
thantake
travellinga at
o on
npassen-
ger in,o at 26. w
7,000,000 who
meetshave
his
ewuarya fromu ee causes
company
would hisne
tb
haatvelriyfe
low in-
a risk which had such a result as the loss of one life
in every 7,000,000 of lives? Out of every 7,000,000 of
persons sitting at home by their firesides, what is the loss
of life by crinoline accidents, fire, explosions of gas, or
other combustibles? Out of every 7,000,003 who walk or
drive, how
, many meet with accidents in the thoroughfares
or roads ?
The singular freedom from accidents with which passen-
ger traffic on railways is conducted is shown by a compari-
son between the number of
passengers killed, and the num-
ber of accidents to trains. In 1862, whilst the number of
passengers killed was 26, the number of accidents to pas-
senger trains was 52. The total number of passenger trains
run was 2,553,993, so that the number of accidents to trains
is in the proportion of an accident to one train in 50,000.
In addition to the 26 passengers killed by accidents, 9
men their deaths on railways from their own misconduct,
or want of caution. These deaths were mostly attributable
to attempts to get into or out of a train whilst in motion—
a practise which cannot be too severely reprobated, and by
which many officers and servants of the railway companies
suffer us well as incautious travellers. This brings up the
gross total of passengers killed on all the railways of Great
Britain in 1862, to the number of 35.
Unfortunately there is a class of accidents on railways
which represents a very much larger proportion than those
which occur to passengers. Whilst the accidents to pas-
sengers are so very small, the accidents to those em-
ployed upon the lines are proportionately much greater.
Whilst "the number of passengers killed by accidents be-
yond their own control" amounted to 26, the number of
"servants of companies killed by accidents beyond their
own control" amounted to 20 ; and whilst " the number of
passengers killed or injured owing to their misconduct or
want of caution" was only 9, the number of servants of
companies killed or injured from the same cause amounted
to 89 killed and 25 injured. This disproportion is, of course,
the more remarkable if the numbers are considered in their
relative proportions to the numbers of travellers in the one
case (180 millions), and the number of servants in the
other (say 100,000). But then we have to consider that
they apply to different descriptions Of trains. let addition
to the 2,500,000 passengers' trains which run every year,
there are 1,600,000 goods and mineral trains which
do not carry passengers. And these trains, a large pro-
portion of which run by night, and which are of much
greater weight than passenger trains, although they
do not run at such high speeds, are, of course, equally, and
in certain cases even still more liable to accidents. Goods
trains, mineral trains, and cattle trains are not so well ap-
pointed as passenger trains ; they are not expected to be
driven with the same skill or by machinery of the same
power; they are frequently less carefully attended to in
transit, at stations, at facing points, and on inclines. They
are obliged to "shunt" at different stations to avoid pas-
senger trains which are coming after them ; and from all
these causes they are rarely so well able to keep time as
the passenger trains, which proceed at higher speeds.
These circumstances must all operate against goods trains ;
but, nevertheless, the official returns do not show that they
are proportionately more liable to accident than passenger
trains. Of the 1,500,764 merchandise trains run in 1362,
accidents only happened to 13, of which there were 7 from
collision, 5 from trains getting off the rails, and 1 from the
bursting of a boiler. But it is to be observed that when
accidents happen to goods trains, which carry no passen-
gers, the injuries to life must always affect the servants of
the company. Hence one of the causes of the dispro-
portion.
But the loss of life to servants of the companies owing to
their own want of caution is a far more serious item of these
statistics. That so considerable a number as 85 of our
fellow-creatures should annually sacrifice their lives
through their own carelessness in the performance of their
regular daily duties causes very anxious feelings. What
are the circumstances under which these poor people fall
victims to their own imprudence ? Ou examining the offi-
cial records, iz will be found that these accidents occur

mainly to station masters, porters, platelayers, signalmen,
broaksmen, and others who incautiously cross the line, or
attempt to communicate with trains in motion, or to couple
or shunt waggons, between the buffers of which they are
caught and crushed. A large proportion of these accidents
appear, unhappily, to occur from over-zeal in the execution
of duty, as in the cases of a station master at Sandy, in Bed-
fordshire, killed in leaving a train in motion with which he
had been in communication, and of another station master
on the Eastern Valleys (Monmouthshire) Railway, who fell
between the train and the platform while attempting to
fasten the door of a carriage, On the other hand, there are
cases of imprudence on the part of experienced men for
which there would seem to be no excuse. On the North
London Railway, for example, a guard lost his life last year
in consequence of climbing on the roof of a carriage whilst
the train was in motion and coming in contact with one of
the bridges.
Whilst these are cases in which the railway companies
are to be rather commiserated than blamed, there are cases
recorded in these official returns in which the accidents
clearly arise from the condition of the line, and in such
instances no one can have have any sympathy with the com-
panies to which they occur. The accidents at the Brighton
Railway Station at and near to London •bridge appear, for
example, to have entailed more mischief than those on
almost any other line in the kingdom; this is entirely attri-
butable to the over-crowded condition of that station and
the character of the route of the Brighton Company in and
out of London. In the record relating to this company
particulars are given of the series of accidents following :
June s—Collision between a passenger train entering the
London-bridge station and one leaving it. About 15 pas-
sengers injured.
Aug. s—Collision at London-bridge station between a
special passenger train from Crystal Palace and an engine
which was shunting. 24 passengers slightly injured.
Sept. 13—Slight collision between a passenger train and
a luggage van in the London-bridge station. 7 passengers
slightly injured.
Oct. 6—Third-class passenger leaning out to fasten the
door, which he had previously opened to release a lady's
dress, came in contact with a bridge, which was too near the
rails, between New-cross and Forest-hill, and was killed.
Nov. 6—Collision. The 8 a.m. down express Brighton
train overtook and ran into the 7 55 a.m. down South
Eastern tidal train during a fog between New-cross and
Forest-hill. 22 passengers and a guard injured.
Why are two express trains started in a fog in the month
of November within five minutes of each other from the
London-bridge station ? Why are the lives of passengers en-
dangered, if they chance to put their heads out of the win-
dow of a carriage between New-cross and Forest-hill '
Parliament is very responsible for these occurrences. It
forced the South-Eastern and Brighton companies to enter
London on the same road. It allowed the latter company
to lay down new lines for its Crystal Palace traffic withou t
properly widening its bridges, and although it was incon
testably established that the route out of London via Lon-
-40n-bridge was so over-crowded as to necessitate the depar-
ture,) of trains within five minutes of each other, it refused
kranlocreast session) to allow new entrances, which would have
mesh,,t,
conveniently distributed the Brighton traffic.
je(lefeet safety with which passengers are carried over
w„tarrtaar ..reat lines is very remarkable. On the Great
carried no less t
senger kills Way, for example, there was not a single pas-
of passengara: injured in 1862, out of more than 8,500,000
then the London and North Western, which
lost, although than 17,500,000 passengers, not one life was
of them slightlY) bY ewo7a 13 persons injured (the majority
at Bletchley and at ilealions which occurred between trains
a 414;ic,cla Norris. The London and South
Western had not
this'
pas-
di
of any sort to any pas-
senger on the line, nor
or injury from accident, thougZ? a single servant by death
tion of servants killed in
4encuzsion that a proportion
it had more than its due pro-
p" , eoriae„,.
of caution, which may min
of their own want
ciently experienced. The South 1.1„,P,ae11.Y aro not suffi-
of the servants employed by
lly fortunate. It had no Passenger
kir
killed
was
equa
The Eastern Counties on y had four paaaelz a
e or injured.
and the London and Blackwall ran 42,000 traingars injured ;
on its line without and carried
10,000,000 passengers a single ac
passenger. On the other hand, 31 paesidsent
either to train or
gers received injuries in collisions
on
the Great Xortheru 7
the London, Chatham, and Dover had, three p„,,ant,7erB
killed and 11 injured : the Midland was unfortunate enough
to have three very serious collisions on its rails, at Market 1
Harhorough, Hitchin, and Chesterfield, in which 211 pas-
sengers wore injured; the South Devon had a collision at
Ivy-bridge, in which 19 were injured ; and the collisions
before referred to on the Brighton line caused the death of

1 passenger and injuries to 76.
Mr. George Robert Stephenson, the civil engineer, in a
pamphlet privately circulated amongst railway authorities
last year, attributed all the accidents whtch occur on railways
to the variable speeds of trains, caused by running express
trains at excessive speeds. The statistical tables certainly
appear to beer out Mr, Stephenson's conclusions. The