The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-21
Gazette Discusses the
Recent Willard Wreck.
Due to Habit of Making eek
ceptions" to. Rules.
ONLY ONE REMEDY.
Compulsory Block Signalling
Law Is Needed.
Other Wrecks of Similar Ma
tnre Are Cited.

In discussing the recent Rock Is
land wreck at Willard the Railroad Ga
zette says:
The cause of the collision at Willard,
Kansas. recently. resulting In nearly
score of passengers killed, on January
6, is not singular; it is of a kind
that has been clearly reported in the
government quarterly bulletins. When
such a cause and its frequent tragic
results are clearly and repeatedly
emphasized in the government reports;
and when railroad officers fail to learn
and apply their lessons, an unanswer-
able argument is given to the inter
state commerce commission in it's re-
quest for a compulsory block signal
ing law.
The cause of this collision is explain
ed quite clearly in a statement made
by Conductor Maggie of the passenger
train. He said that he had orders
concerning two stock trains which he
was to meet. For one of these he was
to wait at Valencia till 1858 a. M; the
other he was to meet at Willard, four
miles farther on. The leading stock
train had not reached Valencia at 1858,
and the passenger train went on.
Knowing, therefore, that there were
still two trains to meet, he went past
Willard seeing only one train there. Elk
actly what the engineman did, or con-
cluded, or what his processes of thought
may have been, is not told; but as the
conductor says that at Willard the train
was going so miles an hour, the concIus-
ion appears to be warranted that he
was not exercising extreme care. The
conductor was prevented by steam and
the high speed from seeing the number
of the engine on the side track In
other words, the rule requiring both
conductor and engineman to know what
trains they meet was disregarded. He
trusted to the engineman to take the
whole responsibility.
This collision is almost exactly like one
reported in Bulletin No. Z, for the first
the Railroad Gazette of July 81. In that
bulletin the table of prominent accidents
in which two persons were killed and
two injured, and which damaged the
property of the company to the extent
of $3.50, which was due to the failure OF
the trainmen to identify a freight train
standing the side track The engine
man and fireman Of the passenger train
We're Killed. so that the precise nature of
their negligence can not be determined;
but the conductor, the, baggagenan and
engine No 16S. when the one they were
ordered to look out for was No. 1853. AT
the examination these sec men said tnat tney
In Bulletin No 6. for the last quarter
of 1902, a similar blunder was reported
(Railroad Gazette, May 8, 1909. Item 5
No. 10, in that bulletin records a COLI
sion of freight trains in which two per
sons were Killed and five injured, and the
damage was 5000 due to the mistake
of an engineman in Identifying a train
on the side track. The train which he was
to meet had not arrived: but a dead en-
CINE stood there, and the eng1neman Of
the passing train took that for the head
of the train that he was looking for. OF
course, every superintendent is or shoulo
be familiar with the lessons of experience
which teach the danger here shown, but
here we have in addition the official re
ports which condense the experience Of
the entire country.
| There is a rule on some roads, the Chi.
cago and Northwestern for one, that al
meeting points conductors and enginemer
must inform each other by word of mouth
| (in some cases by written memorandum
| of the numbers of their respective trains
but unfortunately, it seems to be deem
! ed necessary everywhere to make many
exceptions to this rule; and the situation
at Willard was just the kind at which
| an exception would probably be allowed
| i his real or supposed necessity for con
slant notifications is one of the convinc
1 ing reasons for the conviction that the
/ block system is the only satisfactory
| remedy for collisions; so that the mora
of Willard is the same as that OF th'
| other notable recent collisions