Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1907-04-25
CURE FOR
RAILROAD
ACCIDENTS
blicity Would Give a Full
Account of Wrecks

Publicity is recommended in
striking editorial in the Railway
Age as cure for railroad accidents.
The Age says:
The publicity which is given to
railway accidents by the press and
by the interstate commerce commits
sion is the cause of much bitter ar
raignment of railway managements,
but is of little benefit to the public,
to the railway managers or to the
railway employees. Might not a diff
ferent kind of publicity make for
the great benefit of all of these par
ties? AS it is now, the principal
facts which reach the public are that
so many persons were killed and so
many were injured in certain per-
ioi. The attention OF the public is
not directed to the persons who are
primarily responsible for these fatal
tiles and injuries, and its resentment
is visited upon the management,
even when every prccaution that hui
man foresight could devise has been
taken.
Take, for example, a recent acct
dent wherein at least 20 persons
were more or less injured. Here, on
piece of straight level track
in broad daylight, the engineer Of
the wrecked train ran into an open
switch when observation of the tar
get would have shown him that the
switch was set against his train.
Moreover, the engineer was running
at high speed through n yard, in
violation of the general rules and
also of a special bulletin recently is
sued. The switch itself was left
open by a switching crew, in viola
tion of the general rule that all main
line switches must be kept closed
On this line surprise checking as a
means of educating train men in the
observance of signals has been prac-
ticed for over Ave years.
How To Enforce Discipline.
The most dlscouraging fact con-
fronting tho management in cases
like these is that such negligence Is
found among the men who, by their
training and experience. should be
tho most reliable of the company''
employees. The railway manage
ment, under such circumstances, IL
helpless to prevent the accident, yet
IL is the management which has tC
bear the odium of tho unnecessary
killing and manning of its patrons
Could the censure OF the public b'
directed to the employe instead of t'
the manager, and could there be
aroused a public feeling which woulC
enforce the existing laws to punisl
criminal negligence, there could no
but result an Improvement in the dis
cipline of the railway service.
The question arises as to whethe
the railways could not themselves nc
complish the good results TO be ex
pected of a government board to In
vestlgate accidents. were they to pur
sue Systematically the policy OF CIV
ing to the press at regular interval
/. the results of their own inyestiga
tions into the causes of accidents
Probably the railways could with ad
vantage go further and report to tn
public serious acts of negligence o.
the part of employees, even thoug
no accidents resulted.
Reference TO recently publishe
statistics from various source
shows: (1) That in the five year
that the railways have made report
of accidents to the interstate con
9 meree commission over 20 per cen
of the serious collisions on Amer
i can railways have been due TO IN
negligence of trainmen and engin