Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-26
TIE LATE RAILROAD ACCIDENT


the Coroner's inquest will develop the
cause of the late accident on the South
Pacific Coast Railroad, it is the more nec-
essary that the press should analyze the
circumstances carefully. The only good
that can be extracted from such disasters
consists in suggestions for improved meth
obs hereafter. It is of the utmost impor-
lance, therefore, that it should be ascer-
tanned whether this casualty was due to
some inherent weakness in the kind of
railroad on which it occurred, or whether
it is attributable to one or more errors of
carelessness or neglect which might have
been avoided. That there were such err
rors in the case under examination can
hardly be doubted, though it is not so GER
tain that they would alone have caused
the accident. In the first place it appears
that the engine was in charge of man
whO'had never been over the road before,
and who consequently knew nothing OF
its character, and could not, therefore, be
expected to know what to do at every
point. In fact he so fully recognized his
own want of local information that he
asked and obtained the assistance of a
brakeman who was well acquainted with
the route. The removal of this brake
man from the train, while adding
an element of safety to the guild
ance of the engine, made the train
short handed, and probably had something
to do with the failure to respond to the
engineers signal, when he whistled brakes
down. In the second place it appears to
have been the rule to run light engines,
weighing no more than twelve tons, on the
road, and in this instance a thirty ton en-
CINE had been put on. OF course this
change made very great difference in the
momentum of the train on down-grade,
and it is quite possible that the rules
which had always suficed to hold the
lighter locomotives well in hand after pass
ing the Summit, may have failed when ap-
piled to the heavy engine. The testimony
appears to warrant the conclusion that the
train was going much faster than usual,
and faster than either the engineer or con-
ductor desired. 1t is evident that the
engineer found the train getting
beyond his control when the down grade
had been entered upon, and he must
have become seriously alarmed, for
he reversed the engine as final expedient,
at the same time calling for brakes.
In the third place it is shown that the
brakes were of the old-fashioned kind no
air-brakes being on the fiat cars. Here is
clear and an important piece of neg
lect on the part of the company. No train
carrying passengers ought be sent out with
out air-brakes. Their use in this case
would almost certainly have so checked
the speed of the train as to prevent the ac-
cident. In sending passengers out without
those brakes the company is unquestiona-
bly, to blame. In the fourth place it is
alleged that the fat cars used were rick
city. They projected so far over the
rails on each side as to be unstable when
loaded. and it is suggested that rush of
passengers from one side to the other
caused them to careen so that one was
lifted off the track, and striking the en-
bankment produced the consequent loss of
life and mutilation.