The San Francisco call., 1898-02-02
GOING AHEAD ANY HOW.
The Market = Street Railway . Decides to Have Fe nders. :.

:. Decides to Have Fe nders.
 Yesterday the directors of the com pany considered the subject of attach ing lenders to the electric cars. The discussion turned largely upon the re- peated delays of the Board of Super visors. Time and again the board has been urged to take some definite ac- tion-te designate some fender or device, but; one delay has followed an other until the patience of the railroad company Is exhausted.
 At the meeting Vining submitted a communication to: William F. Herrin, chief counsel of the corporation, in which he reviewed all the communica- : tions sent to the Board of Supervisors from May, 1895, until January; 1898. All the tests made, all the tests recom- mended, and all the agreements to ob- serve tests were enumerated. The ac- tion of the board in rejecting devices recommended by the railroad company: was particularly noted. " When asked yesterday what action the company proposed to take in the matter of providing safety devices Mr.: Herrin said: At: a meeting of diree- tors: to-day we resolved. to put on at once the best device :obtainable Our patience in waiting on the Board of Su-, perVisors is exhausted, We have tested everything the. Supervisors have sug-. gested. They asked us to introduce the model of lenders used in Eastern cities. and at our expense we brought such devices here, but still they refused to adopt one. We now propose to eXer- else our best judgment in applying a device to save human life and will equip our cars with lenders. Should the Board of Supervisors hereafter pass an ordinance requiring our company to put on some other fender or device we will go into court and fight the propo-- sition on it's merits. The Supervisors will: be compelled to pnove that they have found something better than we introduced" :"
 F.. P. Vining, manager of the Market street system, said: we have been awaiting the action of the Board of Su- pervisors since 1895. In July of that year the Supervisors passed a resolu- tion extending the time for equipping cars with lenders until thirty days after some particular device or devices had been adopted and approved by the board. In November, 1897, the Super visors adopted a resolution referring the matter to the Committee on Health and. Police, with notice that said com mittee would test. devices. We have tested thirty lenders, among them ilidHy Ol lie hiHu that HdO been aC- .cepted in Eastern cities. We tested the Hunter, Blakestone, Daisy Baltimore, Providence, Pettitt, Bodenann, Marke- ley, Reeve, Market street, Blakestead- Barnes-Riggs, Sickels,- Coleman, Craw- ford, Boston, West, Jones and others. We have complied with every sugges- tion and request of the Board of Su- pervisors.
 We have. expended: more money in
 aolr f-: S14 equip every car on our system with the best device known. We now propose to select the best fender exhibited, the one which In our Judgment will afford the greatest protection. to human life, and equip our cars with the accepted device. We shall wait no longer on the Board of Supervisors :: !. MT. Vining is squarely set against the use of any projecting fender and is armed with statistics from various roads to show that the projections harm more people than they protect He con-
 tends that hundreds of thousands of people daily take the chance of cross ing the tracks in. the face of approach cars. They measure the distance by a E glance at the body of the car on an
 even line of their vision.
 A miscalculation is seldom made | when there Is no projecting object near | lue: SulldCe OE tHe STOunQ. A 1enQer |. . ahead of the car is frequently un-
 noticed and the result is that the per- r son: seeking to cross immediately in 1, front of the car is knocked over by the projecting object. MT. Vining contends | that the lenders placed on the cable
 cars here shortly after the introduc- | ton Of the cable system were taken off as experience taught the managers of the lines that the lenders increased the casualties. MT. Vining believes
 that dropping scoop attachment to
 the truck is good safety device.