Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1875-04-29
THE HISTORY OF RAILROAD ACCT
DENTS


DENTS
from Charles Francis Adams Jr.'s Lecture.
1t might sound brutal to say so, but in
few ways were lives lost with such great
immediate benefit to the world as in rail
road accidents. The whole world trav-
eled thenceforth more safely for every
life lost. New appliances, new precau-
tons, severer discipline followed every
accident. During the first eleven years
of railroad experience almost no disas-
trous accidents occurred. The first ter
rible one was ON the Versailles road in
France, in May, 1912, when an engine
broke down while running at full speed,
and its cars piled up on top of it. The
doors of the cars were locked, they took
fire, and fifty-three persons were crushed
or burned to death and many injured.
The lecturer gave other instances Of like
character, and showed how recent i'm
provements In car construction obviated
the danger of such accidents. In New
England there have been three terrible
railroad accidents Shat at the Norwalk
draw-bridge in May, 1853; that at Valley
Falls, r. l., on August u, 1853, and
that at Revere station in August, 1871.
Each of these was taken up, described
and analysed, and illustrated by the ex-
perience of many other accidents of like
character elsewhere. All of them were
preventable, and there could be no ex-
cuse for their recurrence. The various
appliances which had been adopted in
consequence of these accidents were re-
ferred to, and the opinion was expressed
that the Revere disaster had reduced the
dangers incident to railroad travelling in
Massachusetts, by one-half. 1t had
brought the train-brake and the emil
Ter" platform into general use; it had
caused the increased adoption of running
signals and greatly improved discipline.
The lecturer then passed to accidents
which had not happened. Since the Re
we're accident 20,OOO,0OJ of passengers
had been carried by railroads within the
limits of Massachusetts,. How many of
these had been killed by faults of the
railroad companies and by accidents over
which The passenger himself had no con-
trol2 Just one. This statement applied
only to passengers exercising due care;
in all ways connected with the operation
of railroads about 300 people year were
killed or injured in the State. Another
question: What is the length in Massa-
chusetts of the average railroad journey,
resulting in death? The answer sounds
absurd; it is 324, 600, 900 of miles. That
is, on an average, 100000 persons
travel fifteen miles each, before any one
of them is killed by railroad accident.
So the average journey resulting in death
is 10000, 900 miles. If person travelled
as passenger on Massachusetts, railroad
800 miles day, every day of his life, he
would, by n doctrine of ch ances, be sew
enty years old before he would receive
an injury in railroad accident. French
statistics showed that stage-coach travel
ing was at least fifty times as dangerous
as travelling by rail. The danger of be-
ing murdered in Massachusetts, was
greater by far than that of being killed
in railroad accident. In 1878 the rail-
roads carried ~, 900, 600 passengers with
out killing one; in the same year in Bos-
ton alone five persons were killed by |
down stairs, seven by falling
out of windows With 10000 miles of !
track, full of curves, culverts and |
bridges, with safety depending ON every
thing, from the state Of the atmosphere
to the strength of the rails-with trains |
moving in every direction, at all times
accidents must happen, since the man.
agements of railroads are human. That
they should happen so rarely is the true
cause for wonder. There is no more
human achievement than the
Of speed and safety with
which the movement of modern civiliza-
ton is maintained through the unceasing
exercise of human care, human skill, and
human foresight.
RATIHlYs