Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-03
FATAL TRAIN WRECKS
CARELEsSNEss A PROMINENT
FACTOR IN RAILWAY DISASTERS.
Summary Of Reports to the Interstate
Commission-Increas in
Casualties.

Reports to the interstate commerce COM
mission from the railroads of the United
States show that for the three months end
ed December 81, 1908, there were 44o per-
sons killed In train accidents and Bits
injured. In other than train accidents on
railroads and in the yards of the roads
there were total Of 991 killed and 1l,SS/
injured. This includes passengers. train
men and all others, and all sorts Of acci-
dents.
Derailment is the most frequently destruc-
tive to life of all the accidents. The pas
sage of the act Of Congress requiring all
railroads in the country to report their ac-
cidents to the interstate commerce commits
sion was dated March 3, 1901, and the quar-
ter under consideration shows larger
number Of fatalities than any previous SIM
liar length of time in the past fifteen years.
During the quarter there were 1882 COLI
sions and Liz derailments, of which num-
Der 2S7 collisions and 119 derailments AFFECT
ed passenger trains, and the damage 10
cars, engines and roadway amounted to 81
527 GOO.
More Killed Than in War.
In the year ended June 80, 1903, Ahere
were, including passengers, employees ana
all other persons, 1898 persons killed ana
80, OO4 injured on the railroads of the coun-
try. OF these 321 passengers were killed
and 6,973 injured, and 2,33S employees killed
and 1854 injured. These figures are great
ly in excess of the casualties to the army
and navy of the United States during the
war with Spain, and although the percent
age Of killed and injured on the railroads Is
small in proportion to the population OF the
country, it Is said by competent judges 10
be unnecessarily excessive and largely the
result of careleSSneSS.
One of the features of former years was
the frequent killing of trainmen while rio-
ing on top of box cars and being struck Dy
overhead distractions. This has been
largely eliminated by the introduction of the
airbrake on trains and its compulsory IN
stallment within certain reasonable time.
This improvement largely does away Win
the necessity for trainmen riding on the tops
of cars and naturally causes a decrease In
the causualttes from that source. Also, the
rapid growth of freight traffic in the past
year necessitated the employment of many
green hands for freight train handling and
many of these green men were killed or
injured by their own carelessness or their
unfamiliarity with their work.
The Results of Carelessness.
One Of the causes Of accidents that is not
infrequent is the derailment of trains by
distractions which have fallen on the track
from some other train. Such things as
logs, bales of cotton, bridge iron, stones and
the like material carried by fiat cars often
cause train following the one from which
the obstruction fell to be thrown from the
track with resultant probable loss of life.
A case of this kind was caused by the de-
railment of passenger train, which ran
into bridge timbers which had fallen from
an open car The cause assigned was that
the stakes which held the timbers had been
selected carelessly and the car inspectors
had not done their full duty. The conse-
quence was the stakes broke and the tim
bers fell from the car without, Of course,
the knowledge of the engineer or any OF
the crew.
In this wreck there were sixty-five per-
sons killed and four injured, while the
financial loss to the company was about
$4,000 The passengers who were killed
were nearly all of them scalded by steam
which escaped from the dome of the engine
which, as a result of the wreck. was left
In such a position as to emit the steam Into
the leading passenger car. The passenger
train was travelling at the rate of fOrty-fve
miles an hour when 1t ran into the timbers
the whole train, except the last two cars
being thrown from the track. From this II
would appear to the ordinary citizen that
as a factor in the railroad casualties of the
country, carelessness holds a prominent