The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-07-29

Three frightful railroad wrecks
happened in July in different parts OF
the country within short time OF
each other, all of which have SINH
larity as to cause and effect and res
on the Lackawanna railroad at Corn
ing, n. Y, on July 4, in which thirty
nine persons were crushed to death.
1t was rear-end collision, and it is
said the engineer was either drunk or
otherwise incapacitated for duty, and
ran by warning signals into the Ill
fated passenger train loaded with hol-
iday sight-seers.
The second wreck happened less
than thirty-six hours later, on July 5,
on a mining branch Of the Ligenier
Valley road In Pennsylvania Twenty
six passengers were killed
The third was the disaster on the
Burlington railroad. Western Springs,
H.. Sunday morning, July IA, when
fast mail train No. run into the rear
of the overland passenger No. 2, kill
ing thirteen people. Foggy weather,
a distracted woman in the signal
tower, unable to control the rushing
train and overweaning faith of a flag
man in the security afforded by the
signal tower, contributed to this last
disaster which completed. in a span
of thirteen days, the three disasters
with totay of seventy-eight deaths.
FraiIty Of Human Machine.
These disasters are drawing much
comment from the press and from
railroad and intertate commerce
commission authorities on the frailty
of the human machine and the imper-
lection of railway mechanism. The
press agree that the human element
must this time shoulder a large pro
portion of blame, but there is a gen
eral reluctance to allow the railways
to escape by turning all questions
aside to be answered by the men who
drove the locomotives. The New York
1siA0AiSoii iSpoitS III q ulSpotSu lAoii
Corning, N. Y, the scene of the first
wreck:
"a man, locomotive engineer, got
drunk on the Fourth Of July
The hideous consequence was that
| forty persons were killed and sixty
1 injured that day in the disastrous
wreck on the Lackawanna railroad
Charles Klapproth, a wholesale
liquor dealer of Elmira, SO testified in
effect this afternoon, and Klapproth
/ was a most reluctant witness. He is
a lifelong friend of William Schroe
der, the engineer who took out of Ell
mira for run to Buffalo the express
train which crashed into the illfated
passenger train, No. 8, near this city
on July A.
1t appears that the block signals
were working, a flagman had beer
sent back, and a warning fusee wa
I burning. The engineer who jumped
from the cab and saved himself ex
planned that in the fog he could no
see them. The engineer had "mads
/ the rum for twenty-three years on {
railroad that in twelve years had mo-
killed a passenger, and had safel,
transported 100000.
Blames She Engineer.
The American severely blamed the
railroad management in its first com
nent on tile e;isaater, but on later re
ports wrote ar editorial on "A Care
full Railroad and a Culpable Engi
neer." The traffic manager of tht
Lackawanna read is quoted in thu
NV York Tribune:
NO matter how perfect is the me
chanical department. of a railroad, ans
how strict are the rules and regula
tons given the men, it is impossibl,
to get away from the fact that W.
have always to depend on the brair
of one man. 1t is the engineer in thu
cab"
The Tribune demands to know why
Is there no such thing as an auto
matte device to throw on the brake.
OF train that runs by a danger sig
nal, and is no such device possible
/ There is one in the New York subway
and while conditions Of operation
there aes different. the mechanism
not being exposed to the weather, i
would seem not to be beyond the ca
pacity OF human ingenuity to provide
an automatic means to prevent {
train on an ordinary railroad running
4 by a danger signal.
This particular train ran by /
signal seat at caution. and the flag
man of the train stalled in front, wht
was sent back to flag any train ap
preaching from the rear. The acct
dent is unexplainable upon any theor,
except that the engineer who passed
the signals was asleep or temperate!
! out of possession of his wits. It's les
son is that for the safety of passen
gers railroads must not be content tt
depend upon the brain of one man II
a cab. There must be some sort O
check upon the workings OF nj.
brain"