El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-05
Railroads Plan Safety
Try Emergency Tests Upon Their
Employees With Good Effect;
Find Them Generally Careful
-By Frederic ]. HnsI<in --
fContinued from previous -

railroad men are overworked. In order
TO prevent unusual length of active
duty. congress enacted law, preserib-
ing the number of hours a tram man
might remain on duty Under this law
railroads are required now to keep on
file detailed reports of every detail OF
a train, showing the causes and dura-
tions of delays and their length, in or
der that the commission may know
why employees are kept on duty in eX-
cess of the statutory period. The com
mission says that the number of acc1-
dents in which excessive hours of SER
vice have played a part, have almost
disappeared. At the same time the
railroads are disposed to make excuses
for long hours caused by train delays.
There has come to be Sery unusual
number of hot boxes" 'Eleaky flues,"
etc. reported as the cause of delays,
while there never were so many
''draWbars out" or so many engines
failing for steam" as there have been
since the Hours of Service Act went
into effect The result is that the In
terstate Commerce commission recon-
mends that such excuses be no longer
accepted. It also recommends that the
law be changed so that railroad COM
pany violating the act shall be fined
minimum of 800. rather than mot to
exceed $500"
Courts Aid Commission.
The courts have aided the commits
sion greatly by their Interpretation OF
the Hours of Service Act" In one
case it was held that train carrying
intra-state business was not exempted
from the operation of this act. In an
other case it was held that the crew Of
a train detained on the siding to allow
another train to pass, is, during the
hour of waiting, "on duty" If the time
at which the latter train will pass IS
indeterminate and if the former train
+ n
mediateIy after the passing of such
train. In still another case, it was de-
cided that where a fiagman was killed
in the course of duty after having been
at work more than 16 conservative
hours, the railroad was responsible for
his death.
May Investigate Accidents.
Investigation of accidents by the In
terstate Commerce commission to date
are authorized under the law of May
6, 1910 These Investigations have
largely pointed to the necessity Of the
adoption of steel cars and the use of
the block system. both of which have
been recommended by the commission.
It has also recommended that ma
tiOnal system of operating rules be
adopted by the railroads.
The Investigations of accidents made
by the commission to date, snow that
nearly half of them have been directly
or indirectly caused by bad tracks.
Some of them could have been aVerted
had speed restrictions been observed,
but few were likely to occur even at
low speed. In one serious derailment,
an examination of the track in the
vicinity of the accident disclosed 906
rotten ties within a distance of 141
rail lengths. Under many of the rails
there were II bad ties. In most of
these ties the spikes were so loose that
they were easily removed by hand, the
wood no longer having any holding
power. The commission believes that
lack of men and material is respon-
sible for bad track conditions on many
reads.
Study Rail Specifications.
A frequent cause Of accidents is the
defective rail. The bureau of standards
has been studying rail specifications,
and its Investigations have revealed
the fact that the commercial specifi-
cation in the manufacture and testing
of rails is inadequate to disclose the
operating conditions.
People Are Responsible.
By far the greater number of serious
train accidents are due to the failure
of some responsible employee to per
form an essential duty at a critical
time. Nearly two-thirds of all the ac-
cidents investigated were caused by
mistakes on the part of employees.
Surprise Tests Tried.
There are many railroads which
strive so to perfect their system OF
railroad operation as to prevent acct
dents. The Pennsylvania railroad has
a system of surprise tests in vogue.
During one year its inspectors admin
isteFed surprise tests in 1,134715 in
stances, and in go $40 percent of these
tests the showing made by the persons
tested was perfect
Tomorrow: Block Signals and Auto
matte Stops.