The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-09-03
From a Boston Exchange. ]
\ Careless Railroad.
DELEvhN HorsE.
ALBANY, Aug. %. 1874.

-''-' ~. iN'is J
In consequence of an accident this morn
ing on the Rensselaer, q Saratoga RAILROAD
which detained the train next following
and oil which our party had taken passage
from Rutland via Saratoga and Albany fol-
Boston, and failing to connect at this place
for our place of destination, we are here
in this fine house, and really do not fee
very keenly the disappointment. But m,
subject is the accident" and the reckless
manner in which the Delaware and Hud
son company, a rich and powerful corpora
ton, which controls many of the railroads
in this section, trinc with life in their daily
transactions.
The train which leaves Saratoga for Troy
at $40, and makes the run in one hour. is
called the lightning or fast train, and this
morning, while running at a high rate of
speed, when few miles south of Ballstop.
and near little place called Round Lake.
some twenty-five miles north of ALBANY. il
was violently thrown from the rails by the
breaking of wheel, tearing up the rails
and MASKING the sleepers into splinters.
and breaking, splitting and twisting the
solid oak frames of the two trucks of n
passenger car as it was sent dagonallv
across the track into friendly sand bank I.
and all this without "kllling any one" as
the employees of the road who declined TO
be interviewed condescended to saw.
How many in the crowded car, of men.
women and children, were seriously in
jurcd. bruised, manned and generally
shaken up does not appear and when we
tell You that this accident, as il will be
called, was caused by the signal cord being
so knotted as to render it useless as II means
of communicating with the engineer, and
that the frightened passengers were bump
ed over the rails for the space of Il mile by
actual computation, the rail over which the
broken wheel traversed, leaving an inden-
tation upon the rail at every eight feet.
with the most perfect regularity with each
revolution of the broken wheel, one half of
which often having ploughed deep for
row in the road bed, lay Just outside the
track when 1t parted company with the other
half which was madeto do duty as described.
A miraculous escape for scores of passen
gers this fine summer morningwould seem
to be all that can be said about it, cxcept
the further fact that all travellers who have
been accustomed to pass over this road
should avoid it as they would avoid pes
thence until some assurance can be made
manifest that better regulations than those
now i'll practice on that road shall be in
stltuteu.
As soon would we think Of putting TO
sea in a staunch ship without any rudder
as to start out with a tram of passenger
cars without signal cord; for it were
better not to have any and trust to the en-
gineer and brakemen to safely carry that
precious freight of humanity, than to run
cord through the cars which cannot be used
IN case of accident. II is reckless tamper-
ng with human life. and no amount of
punishment which the laws could inflict
would DC too severe for such an offence.
The lax manner in which all the business
II this road is conducted, resulting in great
to the travelling public, might
,e specified, but the one instance here re |
erred to ought to be sufficient either TO |
,ause reform, or failing in that, TO with |
lraw an amount of patronage from the |
Dad which should cause the management |
o look into the matter seriously. The
raveling public has right to demand that
ii the safeguards known shall be in con-
tant use, and that the employees of all
Dads shall be competent and reliable.
The accident referred to could be stated
two lines, as 1t probably Is long before
his, but If we would be relieved of the