The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-19

Federal government to prOV1de great, sr safety for travellers and employees upon American railroads, the Inter state Commerce Commission, in it's annual reports, submitted to Congress today makes vigorous recommends tions for additional powers over the physical construction and operation of the roads. The Commission also recommends that it be given authority to supervise the issue of railroad se- curities and some measure of control over the capitalization.
 4Conditions disclosed by the Com r1ission's investigation of railroad ac- cidents during the year present sit liation which, the Commission believes ought to be the subject of immediate IegisIation. Seventy-six accidents in vestigated comprised 51 collisions and 25 derailments, and caused the death of 2SS and the injury of 1880 per sons. Commenting upon these facts, the report says:
 The Commission again is compell- ed to note the exceedingly large pro- portion of train accidents due to de IleIiction of duty on the part of en- J3l0yes- Fifty-six of the accidents in vestigated during the year, or nearly "A per cent of the whole number, were directly caused by mistakes of employees. These mistakes were of the same nature as those noted by the Commission in its last annual report, namely, disregard of fixed signals; Improper Tagging; failure to obey train orderss improper checking of train register; misunderstanding of orders; occupying main track on time of su- Derior train; block operator allowed train to enter occupied block; opera 1or made mistake in copying order; switch left open in face of approach Sng train; excessive speed failure to Identify train that was met.
 sThese errors are exactly the ones (which figure in the causes Of train accidents year after year. Their persistence, leading always to the same narrowing results, points inev- itab1y to the truth of one or the other of the following alternatives: Either a great majority of these deplorable railroad disasters are unavoidable or there exists a widespread lack of 1n- tslligent and Well-directed effort to minimize the mistakes of employees in the operation of trains. It is not be- heved that all those accidents which are caused by the mistakes of em- ployes are unavoidable. It is quite true that man is prone to errors, and as long as absolute reliance is placed upon the human element in the opera ton of trains accidents are bound to occur but until it can be shown that all reasonable and proper measures have been. taken for it's prevention no accident can be chased as un- aNoidable.
 
 are violations of simple rules, which saould have been easily understood b1 men of sufficient intelligence to be entrusted with the operation of trains. Tsle evidence is that in the main the raIes are understood, but they are habituauy violated by employees who are charged with responsibility for the safe movement of trains. The evidence also is that in many eases operating officers are cognizant of this habitual disregard of rules and proper steps are taken to correct the evil Many operating officers seem to proceed up- on the theory that their responsibility ends with the promulgatiOn of rules, apparently overlooking the fact that no matter how inherently good a rule may be, it is of no force unless it is obeyed- On very many railroads there is little system of inspec- tion supervision of the work of train-service employees so far as per tains to those matters fhich vitally affect safety. Employes are not ex- anined on the operating rules except at the time of their promotion, and only the most perfunctory efforts are made to determine their fitness to perforTn the duties assigned to them from time to time.
 This lack of supervision and in : spection with respect to matters affect ing the safety of trains is unexpfain- able when the careful supervision of all matters directly affecting the rev. eTue of the roads is considered. The auditing and checking systems used for detecting the dishonesty of em- pIoyes are marvels of ingenuity and careful attention to detail, but means of determining whether trains are op- erated in accordance with the require Inents of safety and in conformity with the rules are almost entirely lacking
 'In previous reports the Commission has recommended legislation requiring g the standardization of operating rules. It is vital to the safe movement of trains that rules should be explicit and uniform in character, so that they may be easily understood and that there may be no doubt as to their application To this and Federal leg isla ton is necessary.
 ''Disobedience of signal indications on bIock-signalled railroads is one of the most serious phases of the accident situation Such disobedience often occurs in connection with the move ment of important high-speed passen- ger trains, and when 1t results in a collision or derailment a most dep1or- able casualty list is it's invariable ac- compartment. Fourteen of the inYes- tigated accidents which have occurred m block-signaled roads since July |, 1911. were caused by enginemen run ming by stop signals or failing to re- duce speed as directed by caution sig nals. In these IA accidents 1O5 per- sons were killed and 31' were injured Tn seven of these accidents the cul- pablo enginemen themselves were kill ed.
 ''No adequate reason can be offered for these serious lapses from duty by men who in many cases suffer death as a consequence. Frequently ii is hard even to suggest a plausible ex- p1anation for the disobedience of sig Eal indications. That they are dis obeyed, however, is a fact, and the lives that are annually sacrificed from this cause call loudly for some means of arresting it's results. The most dis astrous accidents of this character oc- cur on roads equipped with modern systems of automatic block signals, where elaborate precautions to pre-