The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-08-13
ONE YEARS ACCIDENTS.
Over Fifteen Hundred Per-
sons Injured On New
Jersey Roads.
DANGERS OF TRACK WALKING
The Coupler Responsible for Many
Accidents-Report of the
Railroads.

roads and canals of the State, and fur
nishes statement of those killed and in
jured on the railroad. The law requires
that statement be made to the State
Comptroller of all accidents, whether
fatal or slight, the cause and the names
OF the engineers, conductors and crew.
However. while the law requires this.
there is no penalty provided for an mac
curate report, nor any means devised by
which it can be determined that the re-
port does not contain the information
sought for.
New Jersey has 4. 146 miles of railroad
track. which is more to the area than any
other State in the UnitedlStates reports.
The study Of causes of accidents can be
successfully carried out. In the period
OF one year covered by the report there
We're 1850 accidents Of all kinds; 1929
persons were injured and 331 were killed
or fatally injured. The greatest cause is
that OF trackwalking and the second is
the coupler Bv jumping on and
on trains, commonly designated as
boarding trains, there were 2O4
people Injured. many of them fatally,
The accidents caused while coupling cars
all apply to employees of the road, while
two-thirds of those injured track-Walking
are non-employes OF the railroads. There
has been slight decrease in the number
OF accidents caused by coupling as COM
pared with the two previous years. ONLY
a few of these are fatal. Many OF them
consist in the crushing of fingers, hands
and arms. Many of the companies take
the precaution to state in their report
that the men injured omitted TO use the
coupling stick. which has been generally
recommended.
THE TRAMP's HIGHWAY.
The United Railroad of New Jersey,
which is the Pennsylvania system. fur
n1shes the largest number of unfortun-
ates. Each part of the railroad makes a
separate report. but the totals brought
together show that 577 were injured and
103 were killed. On this road the coupler
as destroying agency leads, there
having been 182 employees injured by il.
TracKWalking, which is source of much
annoyance to the railroad ot1icials OF this
particular company, because it's track
from New York to Philadelphia is a fay-
orite highway for tramps, was the cause
OF l22 people being injured, nearly all of
them fatally, and SO injured by boarding
the train. On the New York division
alone "a were struck down while walk
ing the tracks and 65 while getting off or
on moving trains. Many of them are
designated as unknown men, and where
there are any that are known it is easily
to pc seen that they are trespassing upon
the company's property, About 10 per
cent. of those injured by boarding trains
were employees.
TEMPTING DEATH.
Passing in front of trains and being
struck is greatly on the Increase. There
have been more accidents during the past
year that happened in this way than in
any previous year. On the New York
di&tsion e5 people were killed and 4S3 iu-
jufet IN various ways; The Amboy di-
vision had 81 injured by coupling, 28 ac-
ciAents, one third of them fatal, by track-
walking, II by boarding trains, several of
them being fatal. The total summary is
94injured and 18 Killed
THE CENTRAL's RECORD.
The Central Railroad of New JERSEY
killed 33 people and injured 32S- The
coupler was one of tho principal agencies
of mischief, 64 men being injured while
coupling cars, 63 injured while track
walking and AZ while boarding cars The
greatest number comes from those who
were injured by walking the track or
crossing in front of the cars. Many
OF the men killed at track-walk-
Ing a,,; Were in an intoxicated
train. At least one-half of the number
of accidents of this character can be at
trlbuted to liquor. Another fact is shown
by these detail reports, and this is that
particularly along the shore line of the
New Jersey Central people take chances
driving across the track without firs5 as
certaining whether there are any trains
approaching.
The West Shore Railroad, which has
425 miles of track in New Jersey, reports
that 1t has had 25 people injured and 9
killed in that part of it's terminal which
comes into the State. Nine were injured
by coupling, 6 by track walking and 2 by
boarding trains.
The Morris and Essex Railway has con-
troll of 119 miles of track in the State.
The number of persons killed was 4S, and
85 we're injured. The coupler was the
cause OF 81 being injured, and the major
ity of the deaths occurred while track
walking and boarding trains.
The Paterson and Hudson Railway
killed 81 and injured 90. Most of these
accidents occurred by track walking, and
a large percentage were 5respassers, prin-
cipally tramps. The coupler injured 80.
aud by getting off and on trains while in
motion 13 persons were Injured.
The Belvidere and Delaware, which ex-
tends from Trenton to Manunka Chunk,
had AZ accidents, "A persons being injured
and Killed. The coupler was RESPONSE
pole for 16.
The Atlantic City Railway Company in
jured 10 and killed 8. Only was injured
by the coupler. The Is of the 10 injured
were hurt in the collision at Egg Harbor
last August
The Easton and Amboy Railroad Com
pany, which extends from Phillipsburg to
Perth Amboy q distance of 65 miles, and
which is leased by the Lehigh Valley
Railroad Company. makes no reports Of
it's accidents.
On the Delaware and Bound Brook, IS
persons were fatally injured. 1t reports
no accidents by coupler
The New Jersey Southern injured II
people and killed 4. Three of these killed
were walking on the track. and six of
those injured were hurt which coupling
cars
Paterson & Ramapo Railroad, which
extends a distance of fourteen miles,
killed ID aud injured 10. The majority
of accidents occurred to those who were
trespassers on the roadbed. Three were
injured by the coupler.
The West jersey had 80 accidents.
Twenty three people were killed and 9
injured. Nineteen were track-walkers
and 3 were injured by the coupler.
The Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie &
Boston had but one accident aud that was
fsta1. A brakeman fell between the cars
near Harrisburg.
. The Northern New Jersey Railroad
killed and injured 8.
Raritan River Railroad injured 8.
Bergen County Railroad injured and
killed 2. Those who were killed were
track-walkers.
Promising Oyster Crop
Special to the Jersey CITY Neps
PORT NORRIS, Aug. IS. 1892. Oyster
ss. hFr.x