Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-10-18
The Safety of Railroads.

10 see now immeaSurablY superior tue
railroad is to all other modes of transpor-
tation, We have only to compare the
number of casualties with the number of
persons transported. 1t will, of course,
be understood that all such comparisons
are of the toughest kind, especially in
this country, where no system exists for
collecting or preserving any uniform data
in regard to railroad operation. Of the
372,OOO,OOO persons annually carried over
the railroads of the United States, about
l,o0O meet with injuries more or less severe.
while AGO are killed OF the above mum.
bers, 800 of those injured and 200 of the
killed may be charged to causes for which
the railroad companies are to greater
or less degree responsible, while the rest
OF the casualties are due to the oarlessness
If the passengers themselves. For every
railroad passengers, therefore, who is killed
in the United States. over 100000 are
carried safely; while for every passenger
for whose death the railroad companies
are accountable, nearly 100000 are
safely transported. For every railroad
passenger who is in any way iniucel,
100000 are safely carried while for eFerT
passenger Injured b. ceGsc3 for which the
companies are responsible, nearly 800 coo
me transported without accidou, In
Mass slchUSg'ts--wherc the records have
been moro systemq.i3aily kept for he
past ten yours than in any her plrt Of
the cOuntry-lue numntr of passengers
carried in that time was, in round rum
hers, 10000 O0O Of winch numn,r j9l
were injured. 1872 of them fttlly o.
the whole number 250 were injured from
causes beyond their cpAt'0 0l the rem ,Indrr
suffering from their own lack of care
Thus, for every passenger in any way
injured, GS8O00 were safely carried while
For every passenger killed 3 100000 in
round numbers were transported without
ini1rv. If We cDOsi Ter onV n se who
were killed or ininr"d from cpns. : over
which they had no con'ipi, he results are
'mcWh t dItfnrrnt Thus. il Ma srchu
5 It's, during he nine years from 1871 10
1879, the uumher Of passengers carr'el
va jO3,0OO,0OO, OF which number fifty
one were killed hy causes -ovOnd their
nwn control For every person killed,
therefore, G,OOO,OO0 were safely carried
As the average distance Travelled by each
person was about fifteen miles, the total
distance Travelled by all before death hap.
pened TO any one was 100000 miles. In
other words, passenger with average
good luck would travel at the rate of sixty
miles an hour for ten hours a day, for 800
days in a year, for 800 years, or he would
60 5000 times around the earth before
getting killed.
1t has been stated on good authority
that there were actually more persons
lo1 Nd sp,, ooh
chusetts fifty years ago, through accidents
to railroad trains, notwithstanding the
enormous increase in the number of per-
sons transported. From the statistics of
over forty years in France it appears that,
in proportion to the whole number carried,
thcaccidents passengers by age-coaches
in Old times were, as compared to those
by railroads, as about sixty to one. The
official returns in France actually show
that man is safer in q railroad train than
he is In his own house; while in England
the figures show that hanging is thirty
times more likely to happen to man than
death by railroad. 1t is stated by Mr..
Adams, in bis "Notes on Railroad Acct.
DENTS" that the annual average of deaths
by accident in the city of Boston alone
oAOOouo tu'tt consequent oH running all
the railroads Of the state of Massachusetts
by 80 per cent, and that, in the five years
from 1874 to 1877, more persons were
murdered in Boston than lost their lives
on all the railroads of the state for the
nine years from 1871 to 1873, though those
years included both the Revere and the
Wallaston disasters, or fifty deaths. Such
facts 60 far to prove the statement made
thirty years ago by DR. Lardncr, that "of
all means of locomotion which human
invention has yet devised, railway travel.
ing is the safest in an almost infinite de-
gree;" and the equally forcible statement
of Mr.. Adams, that ait is not the dangers,
but the safety of the modern railroad
which should excite our special wonder v
Prof. Geo. H. VoSe, iv North Enlerican
Rc7ieU.