Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-04
HUMAN AGENCY IN WREcKs

There have been entirely too many
railroad wrecks hereabouts Of late.
Whose fault they are remains uncer-
tain; but that the two fatal ones Of
last week could easily have been avoid
ed with common foresight and pru-
dence seems undisputed. That they oc-
CURED at all bespeaks almost criminal
negligence somewhere.
That railroad wrecks in this region
are largely blamable on some human
agency admits Of little argument. The
elements so often at fault elsewhere.
have almost no part in railroading
here Where icy tracks, snowbanks,
coldzbroken rails, floods and the score
or more other effects of the elements
are common, some excuse may be
found for railroad smashups. But here
none Of these things enters into the case
at all. Railroading hereabouts is under
ideal climatic conditions and should
therefore be safer than in any other
region.
This puts 1t squarely up to the per-
sonal element-the men who superin-
tend the road and who run the trains.
And part of the blame must rest on
each.
Excessive speed, overcrowding of
equipment, overworklng Of mentor
these the management of the railroad is
to blame. The public can travel no
faster than the trains run; sixty miles
an hour or thirty. It can go with no
greater speed. The public is accus-
toned to quick transit nowadays; It
is the era of the mile-a-minute express.
Naturally It expects this rate Of move
ment, despite the fact that statistics
prove that it is one of the most pro-
life sources of trouble. Overcrowding
of equipment means the use Of the old,
inferior and Yornout cars; the one
fatality in Fridays wreck was in a de-
crepit car. And the strain on the men
is required both by high speed and
overcrowding traffic. All Of these 1t
lies within the province Of the railroad
management to correct.
AS to the men themselves. the daily
familiarity with danger callouses them
to 1t and they "take chances" with too
often criminally fatal results. They run
past safety signals; they leave switches
open: they fail to send out guards; they
guess at or misread orders, and they
find too late that death awaits them
around the nearest curve. Strict disci-
pline, rigid observance of directions
shorter hours and closer oversight; all
these and the number Of wrecks in this
region will materially decrease.
The latest quarterly bulletin Of acci-
dents to the Interstate commerce COM
mission covers the months of July, Au-
gust and September 1906. During the
period Of three months named 1882 pas
sengers and employees were killed from
all causes, an average of nearly ID
ten every day. The fatalities for the
quarter included 50 passengers killed
causes, while 215 employees were killed
in train accidents and 81 in coupling
For the preceding quarter 93S passen-
gers and employees were killed and for
the corresponding quarter a year ago
the number was 1858.
TIL stotal number Of collisions and
derailments in the three months end
ing September 30 last was 1872, Of which
40 affected passenger trains. There
were 1891 collisions and 1871 derail-
ments, causing damage to railroad
property of $3,9S2,760.
Doesn't it seem about time that the
mad rush for speed and the negligence
of employees and management should be
curbed in some way, when such fear
full toll is taken? And especially in
Southern California, where no blame at
taches to the elements and railroading
is as ideal as anywhere on earth?