Putnam patriot., 1913-07-18
 To Increase Safety of service


 General Manager Clinton L. Ba-do of the New York, New Haven < Hart ford Railroad Company has issued the following statement:
 The operating officials of the \ I., \. II. * H. R l.. have called meet ing Of the Division and Mechanical superntendents to consider the report of the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion relative 10 the Stamford accident. Immediate steps viii oe taken 10 bring the railroad operation up to the stan dard recommended in the Commission s report.
 The management will hold meeting with committee representing the en- gineers of the Company within two or three days to discuss that feature of the accident which had to do with the employment of spare engineers on pas senger trains.
 One feature of the Commission's re- port has already been acted upon. For many months the Company has been working upon plan for changing the signal system between South Norwalk and Stamfo d from manual controlled lock and block sy stem To an automat- ic block system. This change was ne- cessltated as a result of the electaifica- ton of the line east Of Stamford. Un- der the new system the distant signal k placed 5000 feet east of the home sig nal. which is twice the distance recom- mended by the commissions report. This change has already been made
 The report of the Commission in regard to the question of the assign ment of engineers confirms the view Of the operating officials that this is a personal responsibility devolying up- on the manage ment and one that could not be delegated or safely made the subject of an agreement with the en- gineers, since the engineers are too prone to exercise the power Of organi- zation without accepting the responsi- bility for their acts. This being the case the engineers can have no voice in the rules made by the company If those rules are considered necessary for the safety of the public. The Inter- state Commerce Commission in its re- port upon the financial affairs of the Company stated that the New Haven passenger service, aside from safety, Is distinctly better than that of any rail. road coming into New York. The oili- cials of the Company have always be- iieved that the trains arc operated un- der as safe If not safer than any road in in the country, and the record of train accidents upon the New Haven Rail- road would seem to warrent this view. In the past ten years the company has carried over 755, ,000,0 900 passengers and had but six accidents in which passen. gers have been killed. The total num- Der of deaths resulting from these six accidents Is only %. The passenger traffic of the New Haven Railroad is the densest of any railroad in the coun- try.
 However, the company desires to increase the safety of it's traffic to the fullest extent. The recommendation Of the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion handed down as n result of the Westport and Bridgeport accidents have either been adopted or are being adopted as rapidly as possible. A large number of new all steel cars are now on order, and crossovers are being lengthened as fast as possible. The same diligence will be taken in regard to the recommendation of the Com mission on the Stamford accident.