The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-22


LOST.
From the New York Press.
There has never been a time in the his
,orv of travel and transportation in this
5 country when so great efforts were made
q nv railroad managers to protect life and
nroperty from accident as the present.
& Vet wave of frightful casualties has
inst passed over the land which has not
been paralleled SINCE the running of rail
roads has been reduced to a science and
was rarely matched in the days that pre-
ceded the age of the block system of sig
nails. interlocking switches, the airbrake
and all the other appliances that are sup
rosed to add safety and comfort to rail
road travel. Single accidents involving
greater loss of life than any of this year
have occurred within the last ten years,
Init never before have there been so many
serious collisions in succession during a
similarly short period. That the loss of
q life has not been greater has been purely
matter of luck.
From and including Aug 26 to and in
cluding Sept. "a of the present year
* persons were killed and 119 injured
road accidents. Here is the record:
Aug. 26-Collision on the Harlem
railroad at Dykeman's station; 4 killed, 3
wounded.
Aug. 27-Rear end collision on the
Long Island railroad at Berlin; 16 killed !;
II wounded.
Aug. 31-Train broke through a
bridge near Chester, Mass, on the Bos-
ton and Albany railroad; IA killed, %
wounded
Sept 6.-ColIision on the "Big
-Four" system; 6 killed, 20 wounded.
Sept Head on collision be-
tween Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chi
cago and Panhandle trains, Just south of
Chicago; IL killed, II wounded.
Sept 1S-Rear end collision on
Illinois Central railroad at Manteno, Ill. !;
s killed, 10 wounded.
Sept 2-Collision at Kingsbury,
Ind, on Wabash railroad; II killed, 20
wounded.
Sept. 27-Rear end collision at Belle
vue, Mich, on Chicago and Grand Trunk
railroad; killed, 4 wounded.
THE FATAL REAR END COLLISION.
1t will be observed that all but one of
these accidents were either head or rear
end collisions, a form of accident theo-
retically impossible even on lines of rail
way that have not adopted the modern
block system, and doubly so on roads fully
Equipped with the latest appliances. 1t
is creditable to some of the older lines,
notably the great trunk lines leading
from New York, and to their signal sys-
tens, that, although their tracks are
crowded with traffic, such accidents
rarely happen to their trains nowadays.
THAT collisions occur sometimes even
when the most elaborate precautions have
been taken, said a prominent railroad
man yesterday, lis due very largely to
1.-THE human element that cannot be alto
gether eliminated from the business of
trailroading. Even if signals are always
properly set engineers sometimes run by
them, for the brain of man is not auto
matte in its workings, and it will so tire
las to become practically imperative at
times under too long and severe a strain
lit is a testimony to the progress of rail
roading that, considering accidents in
early periods, the percentage of causal-
ties steadily decreases, although the liza
bility to accident, because of increased
business and consequent crOwding of
rails and greatly augmented speed of
trains, is growing annually"
Most of the collisions that occurred dur
Ing the recent accident wave were on
lines leading from Chicago, and the man
ayers Of these lines were overwhelmed by
unexpected and coincident increase of
freight and passenger traffic in the move
returning from the worlds fair Such
conditions always increase the working
hours of railroad employees, sometimes
beyond the limits of safety. That this
state of affairs is what brought about
some, at least, of the recent accidents is
E held by certain men well qualified to pass
an opinion in the matter.
BY many, however, the western acct
dents are attributed to the hard times.
1t is the western roads which have been
4 hardest hit, and many of them have found
pit necessary to reduce their working
forces. This has given the remaining
men more than their share of work, and
it isn't safe to overwOrk railroad man.
CY wARMAN TELLS STORY.
lyon have no idea - said the poet, Cy
4 Warman, who served for some years as a
railroad engineer, as an apprenticeship to
& the art of making good verse, "how
soundly man may fall asleep when run
ming on a locomotive, even when he is
stralning every nerve TO keep awake
4 The first smashup that ever happened 10
( my train came about through the slum-
bering of an engineer. although l was
lucky enough not to be the sleepyhead
Il was running on the Denver and Rio
s. Grande, and had orders to help take out
long freight one night. There are many
steep grades on the division on which l
5 was running at that time and three en-
gmes were needed to force long heavy
4 train of freight cars over the line. Two
engines headed the train and one brought
3 up the rear. l had the rear engine. 1t
was damp, misty night, and the rails
We're very slippery. When we reached
certain long, steep grade-elghty feet'and
more TO the mile-we began to have trou-
PIE The drivers on all three engines
y Shipped so badly that we lost time con-
SANITY, and were grinding along at not
4 more than five or six miles an hour.
IN the middle of this grade there
was long snow shed. and our
yraln had passed nearly through, the
!eadlng engines having in fact emerged
from the shed, when l was startled by
N great light all about me. l at first thought
Ile stock was atire, but it was not. Then
remembered that we were followed by
another freight, headed by two engines
ana pushed by a third, the same as ours.
looked back and saw at glance that the
IouoWlng train was upon US. We had
SaHued the track and taken the moisture
from from the rails, so that the drivers Of the
aoIoWmg train did not slip, and she was
making fifteen or sixteen miles an hour.
realized in a moment what the trouble
TTSas-the head engineer had fallen asleep.
DleW warning blast on the whistle,
noWhg to awaken him. but ii was of no
uee' ana his engine was near enough to
ne now Tor me to see his face in the cab.
Ills eyes were ODen-he was gazing