Evening star., 1902-01-15
RAILROAD, ACCIDENTS
An Official Discusses the Causes of
Collisions.
an ANALYSIS UNDER -FOUR HEADS
Engineers Rarely Guilty of Diso-
II
bedience of Orders.
L A P S E OF MORY

An editorial in The Star recently on the
epidemic Of railroad accidents at present
prevailing in nearly all parts of the coun-
try, upon small roads and large ones, and
on single and double track roads, aptly
stated that however perfect the appliances
for the prevention of accidents, at some
point In every railroad operation every
thing depends upon the judgment of a man.
said Washington railroad official to a
Star man this morning.
ITO the public an accident is an 'acci-
dent To railroad man, further an
alysis is made. Thus accidents may re-
suit from:
Il. Disobedience of orders, either inten-
tionally or unintentionally
80 Disregard Of signals and warnings of
a mechanical nature
g. Defects in railroad car equipment
such as a broken wheel
Il. Defects In road equipment, as in the
spreading of the rails or the breaking of a
rail, or the collapse Of a bridge or culvert
and the like; or unseen and unprepared for
distractions on the track, in the case
Of Washout or boulder or tree upon
the track, or any obstruction thereon of
sufficient size to throw the train from the
rails.
Trafnmen Suffer Lapses of Mind.
Just as long as there are railroads ope-
| rated by men there will be accidents. The
great desideratum with railroad officials is
to reduce these accidents to the lowest pos
sible terms, and every effort is concen-
| trated among those who manage road to
accomplish this object.
But railroad engineers and other train
and track men are merely men after ALL
| and suffer lapses of mind and experience
moments of forgetfulness just the same as
! men engaged in other pursuits. I Will give
you an instance on my own road.
"One of our best engineers had for two
years pulled out at a certain siding on
the road to allow an express train to pass,
and it was during the day when he rea clied
this siding. One day he ran past it and
collided with the oncoming train, and in
the smash up he was killed.
why did he go past an objective point
which ought to have been and was firmly
riveted in his mind? He knew that c.rta.n
death awaited him and perhaps his firemen,
as well as some of the passengers on the
train If he ran into the express, if he went
on but he went on l can account for it
| upon no hypothesis other than he suffered
at the critical moment lapse of memory
and ne paid the penalty with his life.
why will man in getting off a street
car in a city like Washington step back
and attempt to cross the opposite track be-
hind the car just vacated? 1t is done every
day, and often with fatal results Ii will
always be done. Yet the men who do Ills
are intelligent men who know that thew
should never attempt to cross the opposil e
track from behind car just vacated until
they have first paused to observe whittier
the car bound In the opposite direction is
near enough to hit them.
WilIfuI DfsObedience Of Orders Are
Rare.
''It is because they forget 1t is idle to
say that they should not forget Their
hot nf nci,,
mechanical, and at the fatal moment they
are elsewhere than upon their movements
at the particular time when they are
struck. .so#
why do engineers run by signals? They
know that perhaps fatality awaits them.
Not long ago such an accident happened on
! our road, as they are constantly happening
on all roads: The telegraph operator de-
clared positively that the signals Were
set The engineer was killed in a head-on
collision which resulted, so we never heard
his version, but the testimony Of the oper
ator was supported by other evidence The
truth probably is that the engineer was
thinking at the particular moment of some
thing else as other men think of other
things than that which they are doing.
"Engineers seldom willfully disobey or
ders. They may misconstrue or misunder-
stand their orders, but they, as a great
class, do not willfully disobey them. They
know that certain discharge awaits them
when they step from their cabs. If they
bread and butter and that of their families
is as dear to them as to any other class OF
workers.
1T may be as The Star said that "a
psychological reason may lie at the root
Of the phenomenon I take it that it is a
human reason, and 1t just happens to get
in it's evidence in sort of a continuous
performance show at this time, which is as
much regretted by the companies as the
public. The companies exert every effort
to prevent accidents by stringent rules and
heavy penalties. Accidents are expensive
to the roads upon which they occur, to say
nothing OF damage suits and attending loss
Of life.
I'm one Of the most distressing of the
recent accidents not far from Washington
the train ran off the track because of the
spreading of the rails, and 1t was proved
that similar accidents had occurred at the
same point.
Equipment and roadbed accidents may
more properly be charged against the COM
panies than those which result from the
first two Of the subdivisions I have given
you. While We try to guard against these
by close inspection, our track men may be
negligent, or the equipment when last in
spected may have been perfect, but subse-
quently developed a defect beyond the dis
cernment of man, as In the case Of wheel
developing flaw which will shatter it at
the wrong time and place.
Engineers will often rely upon the sound
ness of the roadbed and disregard instruc-
tions to slow up going around curves when
they are making up for lost time but If we
catch them at 1t they are disciplined. This
reason probably accounts for the accident I
have mentioned and others like it.
Again, the signals may not have been
properly set, the error being discovered
when 1t is too late. Engineers fall aIseep
upon their post, and sleep is a natural ele-
ment in the human make up. 1t is seldom
that they do, but in the instant of time
that their eyes are taken off from ahead
the signals are past, and in the next in
slant the crash occurs.
is an epidemic of railroad, accidents on and
| in an experience of over thirty years I do
not recall worse one, and at a time
when railroad signals have reached a high
degree Of perfection Accidents will run In