Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-20
General Criminal Culpability.

Yesterdays awful grade crossing disaster
in Newark is the latest proof of the fatal
folly of permitting electric and steam lines
to cross each other on the same level.
Every time street car approaches a rail-
road crossing there is possibility of a
crash, in which the lighter vehicle suffers.
In this city there are several such cross
ings, where the element of danger Is high.
Good fortune has heretofore prevented such
a disaster as that at Newark, but the COM
munity which relies upon luck must eventu-
ally come to grief. In Newark as here.
the crossing was guarded by gates, fiimsy
barriers which act merely as moral warn
ings, and not as physical deterrents. The
car was beyond the control of the motor
man for some reason not yet ascertained,
and crashed through the light obstacle as
easily as boot heel brushes peanut
The motorman is a present held in blame
just as Engineer Davis of the Jersey Cen
trail road was blamed by the coroner's jury
for the recent Westfeld horror In the
case of Davis it is pretty clear that his To-
connective was defective. In the case of the
Newark motorman there is reason to be-
lieve that his sand box was empty In all
such instances the public should regardless
of coroners juries. look sauarely back to
accountability. Leaky locomotives and
empty sand boxes may be blamable upon
the operators of the locomotives or cars
But where is the system of inspection which
is supposed to safeguard the public against
the negligence or forgetfulness of the oper-
atives? Why should trolley car whose
course carries it over a dangerous grade
crossing be permitted to exhaust it's supply
of sand? Why should locomotive be put
in service which is liable to develop steam
leaks at any moment and obscure the vision
of the engineer? 1t may be said for the
employing corporations that the engineer
at Westfield should have slowed his train
when he found it impossible to see the sig
nails and that the Newark motorman
should have reversed his current in time
| to avert the least possibility OF a crash
when he found his sand box empty. But
that does not excuse the corpora lions for
failing to inspect and insure tight steam
joints or full sand boxes at every stage of
the progress of locomotive or trolley car,
nor for holding their employees to schedules
forcing them to take such risks
In the case of the street railroad there
remains the one prime question, Why was
not a derailing switch in use at this dan
gerous point? With such a switch it is
necessary for the conductor to cross the
railroad track and turn lever or pull a
chain before the street car can continue
its way without running off it's own tracks.
At some of the suburban grade crossings of
electric and steam lines in this vicinity
such switches are in use and they afford
an absolute guarantee against collisions.
They should indeed be required of the local
| lines at these points of even greater danger
within the city Inns.
So that at Newark there was first the
city permitting the railroad to continue its
occupation of the streets at grade regard
less of the increasing tendency to force the
| corporations to raise or lower their tracks;
| next. the railroad perssting in such grade
crossings; finally, the street railroad COM
pany failing to provide derailing switches
and a proper inspection system. There
would seem to be criminal culpabity on all
sides.