The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-11-26
BICYCLE ACCIDENTS.
How Far Has the Wheel Made Life
More DangerOusS

health and the hazards, the perilS and
the pleasures of life; but in exactly
which proportion no one knows, and i'll
the nature of things it is extremely diff
cult to determine how far the bicycle
has made life more dangerous.
Accident Assurance, Boston paper,
has collected from the newspapers the
bicycle accidents in the United States
in August. They numbered 1,450, and
the journal which collected them
reaches the conclusion that they are
about Is per cent. of the whole number.
This is, of course, not much better than
mere guess, though the paper from
which we are quoting claims to have
reached this conclusion "after careful
Investigations" These August acct
dents consist of 46 deaths, ga frac-
lures, 224 cuts and decorations, 42O con-
tusions and bruises, Al dislocations, 80
sprains and 297 injuries to the head.
For an innocent recreation in a single
month this will strike most people as a
pretty fair list of casualties. Besides
the 46 persons reported instantly killed
in August there were As persons re-
ported as likely to die. Assuming one
half of them as terminating fatally, and
there would be 70 deaths from bicycles
in August. =, August is favorite month
for riding. Fairmount park had, for
instance, 219,364 riders in August,
against 1853, 675 in September. Accident
Assurance concludes that the average
number of deaths for the month is 65,
of 7S0 year. Nearly all the deaths
from accidents probably get in the
newspapers, so that one may fairly say
that the fatal bicycle accidents in this
country are from 700 to 500, and nearer
500 than 700. 1t would surprise no one
who knows how much the newspapers
do not get to learn that the fatalities
reached 1000.
Taking even 500, this compares with
ISL passengers killed in 1896 (year end
ing June 3O), 1000 railroad employees
an 4,406 persons run over by trains.
These things are, however, relative.
About 100000 bicycles are believed to
be in use. If there are 800 deaths, and
this means a pretty fair proportion,
bicycles. Among trainmen there was
in 1896 one death for every 152 en-
ployed. This indicates that it is Al
times as dangerous to be brakeman
as to ride bicycle. No one can certain
ly object to risk as small as this. No
one looks on brakeman as foolhardy,
and his risk of getting killed is forty
fold that of bicycle owners. Out of
the passengers carried one out of 2,S27,-
474 was killed. These are not separate
passengers as individuals, but as trips.
Giving each bicycle owner in 100000
| five trips week of all sorts, long and
short, and with 800 deaths there would
be one to every 1,562,5OO trips. This
would make the bicycle just about twice
as dangerous, trip for trip-not mile for
mile, very different matter-as rail
road riding.
All this is mere approximation, but
as far as the death risk goes one may
safely say that the bicycle rider has a
very much less risk of fatal accident
than a trainman, and that his risk is n
good deal greater, say, twice as great,
as a railroad passengers. So far there
is some basis for calculation-no very
good basis, but better than nothing.
! When it comes to mere accidents Acct
dent Assurance is at sea. 1t assumes
that only one-sixth to one-seventh, or
Is per cent. of the accidents are report
ed, and, taking the reported non-fatal
accidents only 1,404 for a single month,
it concludes that the entire number
is about 5000 per month, or 100000 a
year. ..s:
No great trust can be put in calcula-
ton of this sort. If there are about
100000 bicycle accidents in year then
about one bicycle owner in so is in
jured in each year. Among the train
men one in ten is injured. so that while
the bicycle owners chance of being
killed is 40 times less than a trainman's
his chance of being hurt is only one
fifth as great. Again, assuming that
bicycles are ridden on the average five
times a week, about one bicycle pas
senger or tripper, so to speak, is hurt
out of every $4,000, while among pas
sengers one out of 17S,132 is injured
so that the chances of injury on the BIZ
cycle to the chances on railroad train
are about as three to two.
The sound conclusion, therefore, is
that while bicycle riding is on the VIII Die
less safe than riding on a railroad, it has
far less hazards than work on railroads
Hazards and perils bicycle riding un-
questionably has. This is one of the
very best things about it. Our civil
zation would be but poor, weak and
spiritless thing if 5 100000 bicycle own
ers were not glad to face some risk for
an invigorating PHILADELPHIA
Press.
American Educational Institutions.
1t is certainly something of tribute
To American educational institutions
and scholars that when. some years ago
a graduate OF Harvard went to Oxford
and applied for admittance there to
| make a special study of Shakesneara