The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

RAILWAY AGVIDONTS IN 1855.

(Fern Captain Dottylas Galtoit's Official Repo,t.)
Faun the returns whice. have been made to the de-
partment by railway companies, it would appear Oat in
1855 246 per,oom have bean killed, and 414 persons have
been injured, on railways. Of this number, 2S killed
and 331 injured wore passengers ; 125 killed and 92 ir-
pared were servants of railway companies, or persons
employed under contractors ou the railways ; and 93
persons have been killed and 21 injure 1 who wiro
neither passengers nor servants of the railway com-
panies. Of the passengers who have sell red on rail-
ways, 10 were killed and 311 injured from causes be-
yond their own control, and 13 were killed and 20 in-
jured from want of cawien on their own part. The re-
maining GS accidents are chiefly attributable to defective
errangemonts, which may he classed as fellow : Defects in
the construction of works or rolling stock. Insufficiency
of accommodation or of appliances for securing safety.
Insufficient staff. Inadequacy in the system of working.
Under the head of defects in the construction of the
works or roleing stock may be classed four accident::
from trains leaving the rails, of which one occurred on
the Wimbledon and Croydon Railway, front the line
having been constructed without sufficient ballast ; one
on the fa ,ndon and North-Western, at Preston I3rook,
from the permanent way being too light for the traffic it
was required to carry ; the third ou the North British,
attributed to a joint-key having fallen out, the permanent
way being also in a defective condition ; and the fourth
occurred on the South-Eastern, in the lligham tunnel,
owing to the defective condition of the road in the tun-
nel, partly arising from bad drainage. In all these cases
it is stated by the inspecting officer that the accident
probably would not have occurred had the joints of the
rails been fished. The use of self-acting points ha: occa-
sioned several acci lents during the past year. Accidents
from the fracture of couplings caused the death of one
passenger and injured six passengers. Five accidents
taicurred from boiler explosions in the year. The want
of siding acccrumadation hat led to several accident .
Tee inadequacy of the signal arrangements has entered
into the causes of 15 accidents. The inefficient position
of the tail lights of trains has been the partial cause of
several accidents. The want of time-pieces has contri-
buted to cause six accidents. The want of a communi-
cation between the guard_ and engine-driver of a train
has contributed towarda nine accidents. The want of
break power is alluded to in the case of five accidents.

From the reports on several accidents, it would appear
that many railway servants are overworked to a dange-
rous extent. The negligence of servants of railway com-
panies has contiibeted to 36 of the accidents which have
been reported upon. A careful eximination of the seve-
ral accidents shows that those railways upon which
negligence is most apparent are those where the system
of management is most defective. A frequent element
of danger in excursion trains has bee❑ the practice of
running them without any time table ; that is to say,
the time at which they are started as fixed, but the
engine drivers are ordered to make the best of their way
to the end of their jmrney. The unpunctuality conse-
Tient upon defective arrangements has caused accidents
in 14 cases.

Although it cannot be shown what has been the pro-
portion of accidents to the number of passengers cot-
veyed, yet it is certain that the number of passengers
conveyed in 1855 must have exceeded the number con-
veyed in 1854 ; and, therefore, since the number of pas -
sengers killed or injured from causes beyond their own
control is smaller for 1855 than it was for 1854, the pro-
portion will also be smaller.
This diminution must be taken only to a modified ex-
tent as an evidence of improved management by the
railway companies ; for it le worthy of remark that the
number of accidents to trains which have been considered.
by your lordships of sufficient importance to be investi-
gattd has increased ; that the analysis of the accidents
shows that the larger proportion have been due to causes
within the control of the management; and that the
proportion of accidents due to this cause has not dimi-
nished as compared with former years.
The inquiries by officers of this department into rail-
, way accidents commenced in 1840, and in the report for
that year it is stated that out of 35 accidents 21 were
attributable, amongst other causes, to defective arrange-
ments, 18 were attributable to misconduct of servants,
and 6 to mechanical causes.
The following is the proportion in which these causes
have been distributed for the last three years :
In 1553, 76 accidents to trains were reported upon ;
and it appeared that iu only 5 of the 76 cases did purely
accidental circumstances alone cause the accidents ; and
in only 11 other cases were purely accidental circum-
stances combined with other causes to create the acci-
dents. In only 28 cases was the direct negligence of
inferior servants a contributing cause of the accidents,
and in some of these cases the negligence was traced
either to the men having been overworked, or to defects
in the state of discipline.
In 1854, out of 85 accidents which were reported upon,
in only 21 instances did purely accidental circumstances
enter Into the causes of the accidents, and in only 16 out
of the 21 cases were the accidents attributable to acci-
dental circumstances alone. The negligence of inferior
servants entered into the causes of 36 of the accidents,,
but iii only three cast s were the accidents due to that
ea:lse alone. Three accidents were from causes entirely
beyond the control of the company. hence only 22 out
of the 85 accidents could not have been guarded against.

The following is the present li,t of Marshals of France
(the recent promotions included), with the respective
dates of their creation—S. A. I. Prince Jerome Napo-
leon, 1850; Comte Reills, 1847; Valliant, 1851; Magnan,
1852,-; Comte de Castellane, 1852 ; Comte Dara.guay
dalilliers, 1854 ; Pelissier, 1855 ; Comte Rar4on, Can-
robert, wad Bouquet, 1856.