The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-09 00:00:00

RAILWAY' ACCIDENTS

T YEAR.

(From the Times.)
The public will learn with -considerable interest that
the generaia,ccount of railway 'aceidants 'has been made
up to the close of last year, so that the actual state of
this question can now be ascertained. The results are
before us in a " return of the number and nature of the
accidents, and the injuries to life and limb, which have
occurred on all the railways in Great Britain and Ire-
land from the Ist of July to the 31st of December, 1852,
together with the number of passengers conveyed during
that period." Our first brief announcement of the facts
here disclosed will create, we fear, unmitigated dismay.
In the six months terminating as aforesaid there were
killed upon the railways of this kingdom one hundred and
thirty-three persons, while there were injured three
hundred and eighty-seven. These amounts appear per-
fectly terrible. Many a pitched battle has been won
with smaller loss of life ; in fact, the great fight of
Meeanee, which destroyed the Ameers and gave Sir
Charles Napier the command of Scinde, cost the British
force but some 200 wounded and 60 or 70 killed. The
total number of sufferers shown in the return is 520 for
the six months, which, if the rate is maintained, would
give upwards of a thousand casualties for a single year.
We shall presently offer some explanations which will
materially modify these conclusions, but the result will
still deserve very serious reflection.
To commence with the most alarming item—that of
the 133 violent deaths—we can soon reduce this sum to
figures far less alarming. Of these fatal accidents 41
occurred to trespassers, being neither passengers nor
servants of the companies, who lost their lives by wil-
fully or inadvertently exposing themselves to danger,
without having any business on the line at all. This
class of casualties, therefore, forming nearly one-third of
the whole, must clearly be deducted from the gross ac-
count. In the next place, 40 servants of the companies
or workmen by contractors met with their deaths by
their own carelessness or misconduct—so that we have
now nearly two-thirds of the amount accounted for
without any censure attaching to the companies, or any
risk shown to accrue to passenger traffic generally.
Thirdly, we find 12 passengers killed by no fault—as
the report assures us—but their own. Forty deaths
only remain, therefore, ascribable to railway manage-
ment—that is to say, as having proceeded from causes
beyond the control of the sufferers; and, as 31 of the
the victims were companies' servants or workpeople, the
actual number of passengers killed by railway accidents,
in the usual sense of the phrase, is reduced to 9.
On the other hand, if we turn to the list of wounded,
we discover in the very first item that no fewer than 316
passengers are admitted to have been injured without
any fault on their own parts, and froth causes confessedly
beyond their control. This number, for a period of six
months only, must be felt to be quite alarming ; nor do
we know that we can offer any effectual mitigation of
its purport, It is true that the return is swelled by the
extraordinary number of sufferers in. one or two parti-
cular accidents, such as that at Redhill, on the Ist
of November, when 71 passengers were injured
together, and that on the Manchester, Sheffield,
and Lincolnshire line, where 42 m 4 a similar fate.
It may be also true, as insinuated: in the report,
that a great number of these injuries were " very,
slight." Still, we should be loth 0., leave the appre-
ciation of these particular damages tb- the ideas of rail-
way directors, and we do not well see that an injury is;
substantially the less from being expeAkoneed in oompany.!
Some of these sufferers may, perhaps belittle the worse:
for their accidents, but the contrary result is at least as,
likely, and the " slight shakes " reported by the super-
intendents may be the ruin of a man's system for his life.
:Neither can we acknowledge that an accident is in any
degree the less censurable because the victims happen to
be companies' servants or workmen, to the exclusion of
"the public," as thus understood ; and when we find,
as we do, that upon the whole 40 people were killed and
358 wounded on railways between Midsummer and
Christmas last, with no fault even imputed to them, we
think the result both alarming and deplorable.
The reader will probably be anxious to know in what
proportions these casualties are distributable among the
different railways of the kingdom. Distinguishing,
therefore, the occurrences, for notation's sake, into what
are generally termed "railway accidents," or accidents
to trains from collusions or otherwise, and accidents on
railways, such as injuries to trespassers, servants, or
passengers, we may observe that the Caledonian had 1
of the former class and 9 of the latter ; the Eastern
Counties, 1 of the former and 6 of the lattter ; the East
Lancashire, none of the former, but 13 of the latter ;
the Great Northern, 1 and 15 respectively ; the Great
Western, 2 and 6 ; the London and North-Western, 7
and 9 • the South-Western, none and 6 ; the London
and Brighton, 1 and 9 ; the Midland, 3 and 21 ; the
South-Eastern, 3 and 6 ' • and the Manchester, Sheffield,
and Lincolnshire, 3 and 6 also. It will thus be seen
that the London and North-Western has had the largest
proportion of accidents, commonly so called—that is, of
casualties occurring to trains in the ordinary operations
of traffic. The South-Western maintains its credit for
security,
.for the accidents on its line are all from causes
conveying no blame to the management. This company,
we believe, makes a noble boast of havins• never killed a
passenger. A severe accident reported to one in
the return before us, but, as the sufferer jumped from a
train in motion, the responsibility is clearly his own.
It is curious to observe how the seriousness, or as we
may say the fatality of railway
accidents, increases as
the ordinary class of passengers becomes less and less
concerned. For instance, in
taking passengers proper,
that is to say, those who are travellers by the train and
who conduct themselves sensibly, we find that to 316 in-
juries there are but 9 deaths. When, however, the ele-
ment of misconduct is once introduced into the
calcula-
tion the deaths, out of 15 cases, become 12, while the in-
juries are about 3. Passing from passengers to workmen
or servants, we observe 31 deaths against 42 injuries,
and, when "misconduct" comes into operation in this
class also, we see that the deaths are 40, though the in-
juries are but 17. Finally, in the case of trespassers,
being neither servants nor passengers, fatality appears
to be the rule and escape the exception, for out of 50 ac-
cidents of this description 41 caused death. This, of
course, is easily explained by the recollection that a man
could hardly be run over by a railway train and live ;
but there is a certain moral in the
creneral conclusion,
that no hurts are so deadly as those bwhich people bring
upon themselves.

In quitting the subject we have only to remark, that
the form of the return is not calculated to convey any
♦ery accurate or conclusive information. It seems that
reports are made by the railway companies to the Board
of Trade, and that the board, upon this authority, tabu-
lates and classifies the results. The "nature and cause"
therefore of the various accidents, or, in other words,
the most interesting portion of the intelligence, is
derived from the statements of the companies them-
selves, and these, it is obvious, might be occasionally
either partial or imperfect. A man might or might not
be acting "imprudently" or "incautiously " when so
reported to the board, and, when a train is returned as
having "got off the line—cause not known," the said
cause might possibly be discoverable by more indifferent
inquirers. On the whole, however, we presume that we
get a tolerably good view of railway management in
these particulars, and if even 9 deaths arid 316 injuries
form but a small percentage upon the 49,886,124 pas.
sengers conveyed during the period, the return is large
enough, in all conscience, to call for the anxious con-
sideration of those legislators whose attention is now
devoted to the subject.

SUICIDE OF AN AGED LITERARY GENTLEMAN..
Last Friday an inquest was held by Mr. Wakley, at the
King's Head, Edgware-road, concerning the death of
Mr. Richard Haynes, aged 74, a gentleman of high lite-
rary attainments, and a distinguished professor of seve-
ral languages. It appeared that for some time past
he had been suffering the most severe pain from rheu-
matism, and had frequently expressed his determination
to commit suicide. Having written a letter to a friend
whom he appointed his executor, and to whom he gave
full instructions as to the manner in which his property
was to applied, he laid the letter on his dressing table,
and then, getting quietly into bed, destroyed Mimelf by
taking a large dose of prussic flcid. The jury returned
a verdict- -" That the deceased committed suicide ; but
what was the state of his mind at the time, there was no
evidence to show,"