The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-08
Supervisors Responsible. for
Deaths in Streetcar
Accidents.
THEY WON'T SELECT A FENDER
Manager Vining of the Railway Com.
pany Says He Awaits Their
Decision.

The Board of Supervisors has wholly
forgotten the fact that 1T passed an or
dinance compelling streetcar companies
to place tenders on the cars that have been
ruthlessly manning and killing men,,
women and children. Indeed, the Super
visors, or, to be more correct, their ma
jority Familiarity known as the Solid Eight.
have conveniently dropped the matter Of
streetcar tenders altogether. This action,
or absence of action, for a protracted Pc
Rod after an opera bouffe play of making
a fender law and testing tenders has had
the effect of placing the responsibility of
all deaths and accidents through street.
cars in the meanwhile upon the Board of
Supervisors.
Even the Market-street Railway Com
pany declares it cannot apply tenders to
its electric or cable cars because the Super
visors have not determined what fender
shall be used. The streetcar combine goes
behind this convenient shelter. The ex-
pense of a general fender system is thus
swaziland every once in while the COM
munity is shocked by news of somebody
killed or crippled for life under the wheels
of fenderiess car.
When public opinion reached such a
innocents and grown people by electric
cars throughout San Francisco the Board
of Supervisors made show of interest in
public affairs. 1t passed an ordinance re-
quiring devices to be attached to street.
cars for the protection of life. The City
breathed sigh of relief; but this did not
please the big railway corporation. What
happened is a matter of history. The
com bine was heard before the Solid Eight,
with the result that the satisfactory ordin-
ance was suspended pending a series of
tests and investigations of various tenders.
Out on West Mission street the railway
men and Supervisors met on different oc-
casions and saw an electrician mangle
leathern lay figures with new appliances.
None of the new tenders seemed to give
satisfaction. and SO the matter passed
quietly out of the minds of the Solid
Eight.
Some months have passed. Still the Or
dinance remains suspended, and the Mar
ket-street Company has Eeen saved the
expense of buying tenders and paying roy
alties. The old-style dashboard in front
of car was good enough, so the managers
said, and that ended it with the Super
visors.
General Manager Vining of the Market
street Company said as much yesterday,
practically admitting that the Supervisors
have not acted all through in good faith
with the people of San Francisco.
"Ive nothing new to tell about tenders"
he said. "Tm trying to catch'up since my
return from the East. Really don't know
what the Supervisors are doing. The
whole matter is practically in their hands.
They passed an ordinance requiring us to
do something that could not possibly be
done, and we have been trying to comply
with the law. They then suspended the
ordinance that they might decide on a
fender, but have done nothing since.
eff we put on new tenders now we would
simply have to take them off again should
the Supervisors conclude that the devices
were not the kind desired. So you can
| understand our hands are tied in the
matter.
1.-THE Supervisors have not found any
fender so far tried to be satisfactory and
we have tried about a dozen. The whole
thing is in their hands and out of ours.
I'VE recommended three tenders to them
and had those same guards on cars, but
the Supervisors did not consider them sat
isfactory. One was a scoop like Clark S
fender attached to the truck beneath the
car and coming down close to the track.
Another was the Baltimore fender, which
is in quite general use in the East. This
is double one, a scoop underneath and a
scoop projecting in front. People claim it
has saved many lives, while the fact is the
persons saved were really knocked down
by it and then caught in the projecting
scoop. Men look at the body of the car
and don't notice the projection, particu-
larly when it is close to their feet, but if
there were no projection those men would
in all probability escape. The fender un-
derneath will catch hand or foot, and
then an arm or leg is liable to get under
it, We also suggested that our present
dashboard is quite as good as any fender
yet tried. But these recommendations
were not accepted.
eve are ready and willing to put on any
fender the Supervisors order Immediately
they select one and put the suspended or
dinance into effect.
1--WE have received the Hunter fender
from Cincinnati and another Eastern
fender, the name of which l cannot now
recall"
When do you intend to give them a
trialY'
"As soon as the Supervisors order trial
made. We are willing to get the best
fender from the East or elsewhere, and
give them trial. cannot say now when
the newest tenders will be tried-that rests
with the Supervisors. 1t is almost impos-
sible to find anything that is really salts
factory"
What will the Supervisors do before still
another life may be on their hands?