New-York tribune., 1912-12-17
RAILROADS KILL OR MAIN
1923 IN ONE YEAR
Soeed Craze. Bad Roadway and
Poor Equipment Blamed by
Commerce Commission.
employees LAX IN DUTY
c;xtv.three Per Cent of Acct
dents Caused by Their Mis-
takes-Revolution in Ex-
press Co. Practices.

,,.,,rr.or be,. l6 Safety first IS
,,-,mount rule Of train operation
..sted bv the Interstate Commerce
-or,nissiou I'm i,s twenty-siXth annual
,.o-r submitted to-day to Congress.
,.,.,s,..ior of disasters on American rail-
,,5s 1ur.nc the last year constitutes an
,,,oo-tant feature Of the report. During
g.I ,car lSoI23 casualties resulted from
,.+,jauts On steam railroads
:. j. noiuted out that many Of the ac-
,. which caused fatalities might
- been avcrted by the exercise Of
-.,er 8,ecautiou or by the employment
I, suitablc devices and good equipment.
-,,,rss given show that of the S.2l5 de-
.,,lments during Inc year LStI wee
,,,ssd bt defects of roadway and -.Si'
..-e d., O defective equipment. This in
5,aies au increase over the previous
.,,r of r.. ,u the deIailmcnts cue to bad
sea. and Of l.o23 due 10 bad equip
ufht ....,,,,
The INVESTIGATION 10y the commission
...lf of rlllroaC accidents involving loss
Irre fUe report says. has proceeded
- enough to indicate tie need OF more
.0.-ti,. measures tuau thus far have
Zen taken to secure safety OF railroad
,,,yel" While jhe previous suggestions
~ tse commission as to tae adoption by
,bs railroads OF al-stcci, or stecl-undet-
ZANE. cars are being adopted 'as rap
,sly az conditions will permit and the
anger f.om tine use of unsound cars Is
grsdgalIv disappearing" tho serious dan
.rs of defective roadway and the use
u unsound rails still remain. as resA'N
n Ubieb deraiimcuts are likely 10 occur
n any time.
Speed Restrictions ignored,
Concerning its investigations the com
mission Says.
M tho tbiltv-one derGilmeutS fourteen
we're either directly or indirectly caused
a. Ia. track Iu FIVE Of these fourteen
r.se. tlt G.rai.meutS would ploOdL'S
fsvc been ayJIltd had eNlstlhE sP-tu -
Srctloue been observed. but in an tl'
terisinir- Gases no adequate speed lt-
.,ri.tior- were in force. ana I'D tHItt
csses the track conditions were so o.
viously unsafe that deraiments were HAe-
K 10 occur even at low Spttu. III -
serious derailmtut an examination OF tlS
ffeCE Il lIlt Niil'Is-N Ni tiiN NtN q
closed COS rotten ties within distance ol
AZ rail Length s.. .- .,.
Under many of the rails there were as
msrv ais eleven bad ties. and under eaCI
of two rails there We're tWeiNe TIES ~
tsdly decayed and broken as 10 De 10
AIN urft FOR service. I'm many OF ines
tiss tt. suikes were so loose that th"E
vsrs oa,ilv .emOvcd by hand. the W,S.2u
fs5ac mo- longer any holding power. lhe
t-sek I'M the Vicinity of this accident Wts
roo-ir ba1asted and was unsafe toI tHr
lsssag, ot trains at ordinary spced. li, ~
Jersiiprut occurred on straight tId. IA
ahiIe the train was running about iH'''S
miles 3n hour
Tho report saws ,hat "tne most dis
mieune and rorDlexine feature in the
uatlem OF accident prevention ls t'e
aree proportion Of train accidents caused
ty dsrellctiou of duty by the employees
involved" The commission believes that
IS rule there are 10 men VINO have Il
tesner appreciation Of their responsi oii-
lies than railroad trainmen and engine
msn. and vet il is pointed out that t5 per
cent OF the whole number Of accoeh's
INVESTIGATED were caused by mistakes o"
he part of employees The report CON
tHues