Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1882-10-02
SAFETY IN RAILROAD
TRAVEL.

The article by Prof. George l..
Vose on "Safety in Railway Travel"
which appeared in the current num-
Der of the North American Reyieav.
is one which will be read with min
gled feelings of satisfaction and sur
prise, says the Philadelphia Aneeri-
can. 1t is true that most people are
acquainted with the fact that the rail
road furnishes the safest mode of
locomotion which human enterprise
and ingenuity have yet succeeded in
supplying, but how exceedingly safe
it is to travel on the railroad. and
how very much superior in that re-
spect to the stage coach in which
our forefathers did their travelling
in the old days is less generally
known. Though the statistics at his
command are very far from being
complete, they fairly and fully illus
trate the working of the railroad sys-
tenn within the limits of the territory
which they cover, and may therefore
with safety be held to justify the
conclusions at which Prof. Vose az
rives. 1t is in Massachusetts that
these railroad statistics are most COM
prehensively collected and most care
fully digested, and from Massachu-
sets records his figures have accord
ingly with great propriety been taken.
They show that during the past ten
years the number of passengers car
ried over the railroads of that State
was, in round numbers, 400, 100000,
while the number of those who were
killed and injured out of that great
total was 501, of whom 25O had only
themselves to blame. It follows
from this that, for every passenger
who was in any way injured, 60S, 900
were conveyed in safety, while, as
death was caused in no more than
1872 instances, 100000 passengers
were transported unhurt for every
passenger killed. The remarkable
significance of these figures is increas-
ed by the consideration that nearly
one-half of the total number killed or
injured were the victims of their own
carelessness, for whose mischance
the railroads cannot properly be held
responsible. This is feature which
makes an important difference in the
calculations. During the nine years
ending 1879 only 81 persons were
killed upon the road without any
fault of their own, although in that
time the total number of passengers
carried was 100000.
In other words, one person was
killed out of each 100000 carried,
and at this rate Prof. Vose figures it
out that any one with average good
luck would travel 60 miles an hour
for 10 hours day for 800 days a
year, and for 500 years, before, ac-
cording to the law of probabilities,
his turn came to be sacrificed. These
are very comforting figures, and we
commend them to those nervous peo-
pie who never start upon a railroad
journey without experiencing secret
misgivings. 1t is quite possible to
prove by the help of the statistics
which have been presented, that the
man who is seated in railroad train
in rapid motion is more safely situat-
ed than the man who is walking the
streets of great city, or even than
he who is enjoying the sweets of do
nestle felicity at his own freside.
The accidents that happen upon the
railroads, and of which the public
always hears and makes so much, are
quite inconsiderable compared with
the traffic carried on, and the safety
of railroad locomotion is really one
OF the great wonders of modern civ
ilization.