Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-09-19
Safety of RaiIway Travel.
20. y. Lo,.don DaiIg TeIeqrapA.

FROM tAe London U0ttV Ietegrdph.
An opinion has more than once been
publicly recorded that il is less dangerous
to traverse an African jungle than 1t is to
walk about the streets OF London. BE
this as II may, 1t seems clear, from the re-
port just issued relative to the accidents
which nave occurred on the railways OF
the United Kingdom during the year
1854. that one is never safer than when
travelling in q railway carriage.
We are admittedly peculiarly peri
patetic people, yet IL IS impossible TO
learn without amaZement the prodigious
number OF journeys by railway made in
the course of atwelyemouth within these
isles. Last year the journeys Of season
tickct-h0lders alone amounted To $780,
600, 600; and when TO these are added the
Journeys by ordinary ticket we reach IA
grand total OF nearly 100000. II is
not easy TO realize the true proportions of
this vast aggregate. still some notion
az the practical immunity from danger
enjoyed by railway passengers can be
gathered from the fact that last year the
proportions OF killed and injured, from
causes beyond their own control. reached
In the former case TO only in 2S,OOO,0O0.
aud in the latter TO 1 I'm every l,O0OO0O
Journeys. But as the amount OF travelling
by season ticket-holders is lard to com
pute, from the absence OF any check upon
their movements, the present report re-
lies chiefly upon the exact returns Of pas
senger traffic obtained from the issue Of
ordinary tickets. Thus we find that last
year the number OF passenger journeys.
exclusive OF those OF season ticke t-hOld-
ers, was 694 ,99l $50, or ll,213. 723 more
than in the previous pear Calculated on
these figures, the proportion OF pas
sengers injured during the year,
from all causes. WAS, IN round num-
Ha1 sas
46G, l2i injured. This Is slightly higher
average than that OF the preceding year,
owing 10 the fact that IN 1884 there
were four unusually fatal accidents. The
total number OF persons returned 10 the
Board OF Trade as having been killed in
the workings OF the railways during last
year was ! ,l34 aud the number Of injured
400. A very proper distinction Is drawn
between persons who met their death
through causes beyond their control and
those who, 80 20 speak, courted their own
destruction.
The railway companies naturally do not
want TO be made responsible FOR the cul-
pable and too often fatal folly so FREE
quehtly displayed by travellers EXclud-
ing, therefore, the is0OOO,OO0 Journeys Of
the season tickot-holders, &c appears that
the proportion Of passengers returned az
killed and injured respectively during the
year by accidents which they could not
have prevented was in 22,4l0,O92 in the
one case and IN s0i ,3Ss ia the other. It
Is interesting and instructive % unalyze
those figures little further. or the
I 1874 persons who received fatal hurts i35
were passengers; Of the :, 100 injured ,49l
belonged 10 the same category This
brings us 20 another subdivision, upon
which the railway companies naturally
lay great stress. Out of the 1855 passen-
gers killed and i,i9l Injured only - met
their death aud only S64 received hurts
from causes over which they had no com
guilty in some degree OF "contrlbutory
negligence"