New-York tribune., 1893-12-14
R1JLU1Y 1CCTDENTS HERE 1ND ABROAD.

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS HERE And ABROAD
Colonel II. G.. Prout. the Editor OF " The Rail
road Gazette" contributes 10 The North
American Review" an article comparing the
number OF railroad accidents in the United
States and In the United Kingdom and indicat-
ing the reasons why such accidents are more
numerous here than in the old country. Incl
dcntally he refers 10 the great destruction OF
life during August. September and October III
connection with the transportation OF people
IN and from the Worlds Fair. In those months,
he sovs. there were ut least los passengers
killed on the railroads Of the United States, and
he truthfully adds that that record is Na-
tional humiliation" The average for those three
months. taking the rccorls Of the last six years
into account. should have been -. All these
fatal accidents but one were collisions, ana
must be classcd under accidents due 10 n'Sl-
ccnce in operation" and all but the collapse
Of the bridge ut Chester. Mass. grew out of
the dsarrangcmenis which follow greatly IN
creased amount of business. Colonel Prout ap-
pcars To protest too much In behalf of the rail-
roads. and thinks that the press and the public
went too far in demanding low rates, and that
meet the demand upon them has furnished n
frightfully costly lesson that should be forgot
ten neither by the railroads nor the public.
In dealing with the main question Colonel
Prout shows the impossibility Of making any
exact comparison between the railway mortality
in the two countries rs complete statistics are
not obtainablc. He presents three methods or
comparison, showing d. that In the last SIX
years there have been Sc times as many pas
scngers killed in the United States as in the
United Kingdom; (2), that in the latter Oofa
million people made one railway journey Tor
one killed while here the proportion Is 3S mill
ions to one death; and Co. that in Great Brit
ain 231 million miles were run by trains Of all
classes for one passenger killed. and III the
United States only ; millions. The general con
clusion from these comparisons Is that 1t Is ut
least five times as dangerous 10 travel by rail
in this country as in England The reasons
why this is so are clearly set forth in the article
under consideration.
In the first place. 81 per cent Of the British
railways were double track in 1901, while only
5h per cent Of the American roads were So
Then the absolute block system Is used on oO
per cent of the English and on only about per
cent OF the American railroads. In the United
Kingdom % per cent of al functions, crossings
turnouts and switches used by passenger trains
are protected by interlocked signals; In this
country the amount Of such protection. while
II cannot be- given In figures IL relatively small
Colonel Prout thinks that our cars and engines
are superior but that the track In England Is
better. as n rule. The fact Is, we have buiit
railroads too rapidly to make them all hrst-
class. but double tracking. block signalling ana
intcriocked switch signals are all being ihtro-
duced with reasonable rapdty. Still. 1t Is evil
dent that considerable period must elapse De-
fore railway travelling will be as safe here as
1t Is In England, taking our country as 4 whole,