The Washington herald., 1906-11-04
Lessons Drawn From Acct
dents Here and Abroad.
TENDENCY TO INCREASED PACE
Motor Vehicles Have Become Source
of Great DaBser-More Deaths ON
Highways in England Than on the
RaiIronds-TraveIe Said 60 Enjoy
Greater safety New Than Ever.


way Company a large sum OF money.
/ The wrecking and total loss OF first
/ class modern engine, Weighing. with its
7 tender, 132 tons, and costing some thou
sands Of pounds to construct; the de-
struction of several luxuriously appoint
Z ed coaches, and of much minor stock; the
I serious damage to the permanent way,
and the employment of 500 men to clear
Il; the interruption OF tTamC, and the
( loss Of public confdence-all these items
viii figure in the heavy bill which the
company must settle.
But beyond that is the company's Ia
bility to compensate the sufferers. 1t is
impossible at present to say what the is
will not discuss il, but the sharp drop
| in Southwestern stock recorded after the
/ disaster was certainly due TO the recog-
milton Of the possibility Of a heavy pay
ment
The cause Of the accident is stin the
subject of discussion, and homilies upon
the dangers Of high speed are being
/ preached. We prefer 10 leave the ex-
perts to answer the question whether the
speed Of the Yankee Flyer on the curve
at Salisbury was compatible with safety,
states the London Express.
To those, however. who profess 20 see
IN every acceleration of the means of
transit a fresh danger to life and limb,
IL may be pointed out that. though this
generation is moved to and from much
more rapidly than was its predecessor,
the travellers enjoy a greater measure
Of safety now than ever they did This
is certainly true, at any rate, Of railway
transit
safety of Railway Trains.
''The danger OF railway travelling has
been reduced to such a point" Sir Her
bert Jekyl declared in his report on acct
dents, that in 1854 the chances against
a passenger being killed in a train acci-
dent in the course Of a given journey
were more than 200.0C0,000 TO one"
A leading railway official said to the
. present writer. after a terrible disaster,
that he never felt quite so safe from the
sings and arrows Of outrageous fortune
as when he vas seated in a drst-class
compartment in one Of his own trains.
And yet the modern tendency is to ac-
celeTate the speed Of railway locomouOn.
In 1904 there were only twenty-five
start-to-stop runs on British railways at
speed OF dfty-six miles an hour and up
ward Last year this number had been
more than doubled, and in the present
summer the number Of fast trains las
been still further increased.
Last summer the Northwestern began
10 send its best trains from London 10
Liverpool. a distance Of 19Z miles. in ZoS
minutes. or at the rate Of over ffty-fve
miles an hour.
The Great Central express TO Sheffield
covered 162 miles ia 40 minutes. attain
ing an average speed Of 5SI miles an
hour, though after It left the metropoH-
tan section at Quainton road It trav-
eled at a rate OF siXty-Jhree miles an
hour. The same line has an express
from Nottingham TO Leicester scheduled
TO cover 231z miles in twenty-three min
utes, equal to SD miles an hour and
several Journeys on other lines are made
at q speed exceeding dfty-nine miles an
hour.
American Speed Records,
The Americans. who complain OF the
speed Of the train wrecked at Salisbury.
must be aware Of their own national as
piration after high speed. The Pennsyl-
vania special from New York TO Chi
cago was accelerated last year so that
it should cover 9l2 miles in eighteen
hours. a speed including stops. of 500
miles II is claimed that on June Z.
last year. this train covered three miles
in eighty-five seconds. or one mile in
IS 1-3 seconds
The rival Twentieth Century Lin
tied train TO Chicago by the New York
central and Lake Shore route was also
accelerated 60 eighteen hours for the trip.
speed. including stops, of fftv-folsr
miles an hour Three days later It was
wrecked, but it was declared that the
high speed was not the cause Of the dis
aster
How far the increase Of speed which
IS now sought after on ordinary roads
used by pedestrians is compatible with
safety is perhaps a more debatable point.
The Wayfarer has 10 educate himself to
new methods of traction, and has to ac-
quire a special habit Of street vision.
which makes him watchful and enables
him to calculate his chance in crossing
the thoroughfare.
The notorious is the latest expression
Of the speed craze, and it is notorious
mat II has been responsible for many
casualties. During May last 400 accidents
were caused in London by motor omni-
buses, Of which sixty-two resulted in
personal injury and two were fatal
Many Deaths on Roadway.
It is a remarkable fact that horses and
motor-driven vehicles killed far more
people in 1SO4-the last year for which
complete statistics are available-than
the railways did, high speed notwith-
standing. The deaths by accident on the
railways were 1073. including those Of 4l6
servants Of the companies. wEfle on the
roadways vehicles and horses slew 1850
people.
The electric tramways has increased
the speed OF street travel, but it caused
only thirty-three deaths in 1903. while ac-
cidents caused by TIE slower horse tram
way killed forty-four people. and the still
slower bus destroyed twenty-nine. Cabs
are not always speedy, but they killed
forty-nine persons in that year.
The motor car is still regarueu with
terror by some conservative peopIe he
cause OF the rate at which il NAV be
driven The number Of deaths attributed
TO motor accidents in 1904 was as follows.
Motor cars, 80; motor cycles, 13. and mo-
Tor vans and wagons. ga total of 81
but in the same year much slower bicycle
and tricycle. brought 80 persons to the
grave
In the corresponding period a return Of
44'S9@'@VJ miles travelled by 800 motor
owners showed that Is fatal and $50 non
fatal accidents were caused, so that one
person was killed for every 2,772 900 miles
Travelled, and one injured in every I25. .OO0
miles.