The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-18
To Avoid Accidents Rules Must
Be Strictly Enforced.
Discharged Employees No Longer
Subjects of Sympathy.
NEGLECT CAUSE WRECK
General Superintendent Parks
Of Union Pacific Talks.
Gossip and Matters of Interest
in Railroad Circles.

The discharged railroad employee has
been the subject of public sympathy in
the past. No matter how fragrant the
violation of the rules which was the
cause of his dismissal, well-meaning
citizens-bankers, merchants and min
1sters-were willing and ready to insist
upon the railroad again furnishing him
employment. There is a growing ten
dency recently to doubt the innocence
OF the railroad employee at fault and to
commend the action of the officials in
refusing to retain in the service a man
who has proved himself careless or
criminally negligent.
w. L. Park, general superintendent of
the Union Pacific at Omaha, has just
returned from the east, where the ex-
element of both the public and the
railroad officials over accidents is hys-
terical and the moral responsibility
of train and enginemen is a constant
subject of discussion in every quarter.
AT Washington he appeared before
the committee. on interstate and foreign
commerce, with other operating Off
Gals, in an endeavor to change the less
practicable features of the employees
sixteen-hour bill. He says that while
there he became convinced that recent
investigations of accidents and an
analysis of the Interstate commerce
commission reports reveal a startling
misconception of the true condition on
American railroads.
MIR. Park the other day made some
interesting statements concerning his
observations while in the east.
He says he noticed recently a press
report from Conneaut, o., showing the
failure of twenty-four out of twenty
five engineers to observe a stop signal,
which is an Illustration of these condi-
lions. The Union Pacific has made
these surprise tests for a number of
years, testing the men once each month:
during 1906 they had only two failures
f--a 1oea Cd cT7o Is at9 iG n
say the men were peremptorily dis
charged. Some of the other things
which he observed are as follows:
The interstate commerce commission
classes train accidents, in which the
men charged with responsibility have
been on duty more than sixteen hours
preceding the occurrence, under the
head, when working excessive hours
was coincident," not necessarily mean
ing that the accident was caused by
overwork; the total number of excess
sive hours" collisions was twenty-four,
resulting to property loss of S136,l15 and
the death of twenty persons and injury
of eighty-five others.
The percentage of the total number
of INJURIES to persons covered by these
statistics wasa 81 per cent; lprupertys
dana gee 2:9rper cent, number of deaths
1.8 per cent and personal injuries d.
per cent of the respective totals. 80 ~
In class A are placed accidents in
or over and ass low as $4,000, wherever
the circumstances or the cause is. OF
unusual interest. t.= = s~tf 80 .i-s-s1s =
In the collisions which; were caused
by negligence of train and ensinemer
there are 81 accidents, resulting in
property damage of SO, 343, 1865, the death
of S04 persons and the injury of 1892
others. -
over 10 per cent of the accidents and
money damage over 80 per. cent of the
deaths and IS per cent of the personal
injuries from collisions IS directly due
to negligence of train and enginemen.- /.
In reference to these conditions, Mr.
Park said:
Amy rational move to eliminate ac-
cidents must, therefore, take cogniz-
ance of this human equation; the pro-
with the handling of trains appreciate
to greater extent their individual re-
sponsibilities. a
at has been frequently asserted that
block signals will entirely eliminate ac-
cidents. The reports of the interstate
commerce commission show that of Ii
accidents occurring in block signal linn
it's, only 2 per cent of the total was
the fault of the system, while negli-
gence of employees resulted in II acct
dents, or S.S per cent of the total num-
Der of serious collisions.
tHtOf 81 accidents in nonautomatic
block signals, two were considered the
failure of the system-less than GA per
cent of the total. Ninety-four per cent
OF the aCCluSHlS, anu over 30 per cent O1
the loss of life in block signal limits
was the result of negligence of employees,
What will be the use of installing such
systems if this ratio of negligence con-
tinues?
1.-The public is now critically scam
ming reports of accidents and I antici-
pate a radical change Of the popular
sentiment, which must come, to enable
railroad officials to more forcefully bring
this condition homo to the men who
handle the trains.
1.-The Union Pacific and Southern Pa
cific are spending millions in the in
stalla ton of block signals and within
a few weeks the longest stretch of mod
errf lft Atp-date, automatic block signals
iIf me world will come into use, but
unless Individual responsibility is de-
rnanded from those who operate the
trains the wealth of a Croesus ex-
pended on safety appliances would be
without avail and the frightful- casual
ties, sof which the east has been the re-
cent spectator. would be in no way
aIiv irQ tod