The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1853-08-18
Westerly, August rs, 1888.
RaiIrOad Murders.

took place on the Camden and Amboy
Railroad between the Philadelphia and
Amboy trains. Five passengers were
killed instantly, and twenty or thirty in
iured, some Of them, it is feared fatally.
Both trains are said to have been out of
time.
The wall of the manglcd and dying
from this collision had hardly commenc-
ed to vibratc on the ear before it was
met by another Of a still more appalling
occurrence on the Providence and Wor-
ccstcr railroad, which took place on
Friday last--two trains running together
and completely smashing them to pieces,
killing some fifteen or sixteen persons
and severely wounding between sixty
and seventy others. The particulars,
the cause, &c., have been so fully given
that it is unnecessary for US to repeat
here.
On the same day of the above pas
senger train on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, while passing the switch, at
Camcrot, q miles cast of Wheeling, ran
off the track and three cars containing
over one hundred passengers, were upset
but fortunate to relate no one was killed
or very severely injured. Thirty or
forty Of the passengers were more or
less bruised and scratched. Fortunately
no one was killed here, but it certainly
was not the fault of those concerned.
Railroad accidents" have become so
much an everyday occurrence that after
a few days they cease to excite attention
and the public mind is drawn to another
frightful slaughter which in its turn
gives rise to commentaries and sugges-
tions, for a few days, as to how these
occurrences are to be prevented and then
dies away without anything being done,
and the railroads remain as they have
bcen-the shortest cut from time to
eternity.
Now, that each Of these so-called
accidents has its appropriate remedy,
which would be effcctual, if there were
some power competent and faithful to
enforce it, no one will pretend, for q
moment, to question.
The running off draw bridges might
be prevented, by every train coming to
a dead stop, signals or no signals, and
see that the bridge is down and every
thing safe. This, Of course, would
create some discomfort among few
reckless spirits who are never satisfied
with anything short Of flying through
the air at speed of some sixty or eighty
miles an hour, but if such hairbrains are
determined to rush on to destruction we
see no good reason why they should be
} permitted to carry so many others with
them. If they are not satisfied with a
safe rate of speed they should be fur
nished with a separate train.
But the most frequent and destructive
railroad accidents are from collisions
All such calamitous butcheries coud be
avoided by compelling all railroads to be
constructed with double tracks. A rail
, road with only single track, and will
n turu outs here and there for the meetin!
y of trains, is an outrage and an abomina
ton. TO set, daily, almost hourly, the
C risk Of hundreds of lives upon a con
: ductor's Observance of time table
G upon setting of watches by regulator
(Which, as it appears, they do not ever
9 look at,) is monstrous. A watch may
9 suddenly stop-the regulator" may b.
t out of order-the conductor behinc
t time, and hurrying on to make it up
q feeling sure that he will be safe, as wa:
y doubtless the case with the late Camder
a and Amboy and Providence and Wor
g cester affair-and suddenly the tw,
e trains meet and hurl death and devasta
ton around. Let it be repeated ant
f reiterated by every organ of public sen
a timent, until legislators shall take VI
the idea aud act upon it-that the onl.