The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1882-03-28
Railroad Collisions.

Railroad COlitsIons.
While every precautlon which the
block system or any other system can
devise to prevent collision on our rail-
roads should be encouraged or adopted
it nevertheless will be found impossible
if constant human vigilance is neces.
sary factor in the means of snfety en-
ployed, to entirely avoid the recurrence
OF this class of accidents. The greater
the increase of traffic, the greater the
danger to which the travelling public is
exposed from collisions, and year by
year the travel on our railroads increases.
Trains following ono another in rapid
succession, and running Mt high rates OF
speed on the same lines Of rail, in the
dark of night as we'll as in the light OF
day. and with the same disregard of foa
as OF q asblinding snowstorm, court danger
and collisions similar to the late Spuy-
ten Duyvil disaster will continue to oc-
cur. Collisions i'll fact, like the assas.
sims stab, are now more to be dreaded
from the rear than from the front, and
as human vigilance cannot be depended
upon to avoid them, automatic means of
securing safety controlled by the engine
OF train in motion, or. operated only by
the undue Oh improper stoppage of it,
should be devised, and, if only as useful
auxlliaries, be generally adopted.
If, however, collisions cannot be alto
gether prevented, there is one thing that
can oe done to make such accidents less
destructive of human life than they
i usually are, and that is to construct
, SE SE railroad cars 80 TINT they will moi
: to -, or telescope. We have no desire
4 nj, the in trains which shut up with
8 scope whee2f a we'll constructed tcle-
is brought tora little sudden resistance
road cars might upon them. Rail-
r they could not thuss'nstructed so that
d one within the other, d, up and pack
? quency of these telescopir{Sem the fre-
u we have no hesitation in saufrences
either the style or construction" that
cars now in use on our railroads isFhe
y fective, so far as their liability and ca
r pncity to telescope is concerned, and
that some radical change or improve
: ment i'll the construction of them tc
avoid this danger is neeIed.
Furthermore, as the running of one
: train into the rear of another is now o1
/ such frequent occurrence, and as in
1 such case it is generally only the last
. car or two OF the advance or stalled trai,
which are so badly damaged as to ocoa.
sion any great sacrifice OF life, why not
make the last car of train purely q
8 safety one, a FORT of buffer car to re.
ceive the shock, and from which all
, passengers should be excluded2 Such
Car need not necessarily be of special
construction, provided it and all the cars
r III the train are of a superior r,gidity,
and so built or framed that they cannot
telescope, consequently the delay and
Inconvenience which attaches to the use
OF rear car of different construction
( from the rest whom making up train
, would be avoided. Possibly in an over
crowded train there would be a strong
temptation to use such car for other than
its safety purpose but this could be
| strictly prohibited until it ceased to be
rear car by the adding Of another.
Possibly, also, railroad companies might
object on the ground that it was merely
hauling dead weight for m emergency
which might not occur, forgetful of the
fact that in a single accident such pre-
caution would be tho mean of saving
many lives and economical in pecuni-
ary point of Wow by reducing claims
for damages sustained.
Again, in view of the many burning
accidents which have occurred, why
should our railroad cars bc made of the
combustible material they now are, or
be otherwise heated than they are? But
we do not care to pursue this subject
further. excepting the remark that if
native ingenuity is not sufficient to dis
cover block system in which the loco
motive is tho active agent, or to devise
q car that will not telescope and when
ignited furnish fuel for q fire to burn up
human bodies, then we confess to hay
ing greatly over estimated it, and shall
be deceived If in the near future, the
means of safety we haYe suggested, or
better ones, be not found, once the
tide of invention sots in this humane di-
rection.