The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-01-02
INQUEST TO SETTLE
IMPORTANT POINTS
CONTINUED FROM FlRsr PAGE:

upon the company. Commissioner West
and in a measure Commissioner Macfar-
land-and Maj Sylvester are firm in their
opinion that something is radically wrong
with a railroad operating d system I'M
/ der which such catastrOphes are possible
/ In no uncertain terms Commissioner
/ West voiced his opinions yesterday and
suggested preventive measures which
/ ne considers absolutely necessary before
anything like safe railroad traffic can be
conducted.
In the first place" said the Commis-
siener, 1t seems to me that there should
be law making it a punishable offense
/ for engineers 10 run their trains past
rcd danger signals. l have talked with
several experienced railroad men lately
and it seems that il is a common occur
renee for engineers to take chances by ig-
noring the signals and trusting 10 tho
/ eyesight and intelligence 20 avoid disas-
ter When no calamity or even accident
results the railroad companies either co
not hear Of the engineers breach Of the
rules. or If they do. he is merely repri-
manded. That such conditions exist seems
almost impossible. bat l have heard this
from good authorities.
Are Too Economical.
ii also appears that the Baltimore and
Ohio and other railroads, apparently,
solely for the sake Of economy, have
adopted a day operator system under
which the operator goes home in the even
ing after merely displaying a cautionary
signal denotiag that there is no enc at
the station. What effect will this signal
have on an engineer as night after night
he passes the block and knows by the
double green that the operator has
gone?
As far as he knows. the road is clear
ahead. Naturally he plunges on AT full
speed ard then, if something has gone
wrong a few miles down the track, there
comes an awful smash-up. This system
TO me seems radically wrong. It prac-
tically doubles the length of the blocks.
Had Phillips been home Sunday night.
as ne could have been. I understand. with
out violating the rules of the company.
there would have been only one block be-
tween Silver Spring and University Sta
ton HildebTand says he whistled for "A
signal AT Takoma and saw none displayed,
II that is true. 81 is TO be supposed that
he thought Phillips had gone home. He
continued at fun speed. The rest is
known.
Better Devices Needed.
Then il seems TO me that there should
be better devices TO warn and stop trains
than those now in use on most roads
At least, il is inexpHcable To me why
there should not be a regulation instruct
ing block operators 30 use extra precau-
tions in foggy and particularly bad
weather. Why should not Philips have
been instructed by the company TO put a
railroad torpedo on the rails or use red
flare light IN addition to the red target
when the condition Of the weather was
such as 10 make the observance of the
ordinary signal by the engineer problem
aticaI2
Il cannot understand why this train
or empty ears should be rushed along
i'm the wake OF No. %. II does not seem
plausible 20 me that Hildebrand was act
ing on his own initiative in driving 2l2l
at such terrific speed-supposin that the
statements OF the witnesses in this re-
Spect be true There must have been
orders from somewhere instructing Hill
dehrand 20 bring the emptjes in as fast
as uoSSihia o.r-,F--- l--r.