Imperial Valley press., 1913-10-11

it was held that train carrying into
state business was not exempted from
the operations of this act. In another
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, ION duty" if the time
at which the latter train will pass is
indeterminate and if the former train
is required to resume its journey inn
mediately after the passing of such
train. In still another case, it was
decided that where a flagman was
killed in the course of duty after ha!-
ing been at work more than sixteen
consecutive hours, the railroad was re-
sponsible for his death.
Investigation of accidents by the in
terstate commerce commission to date
are authorized under the laws 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.
1t has also recommended that ma
tional system of operating rules be ad-
opted by the railroads.
The Investigations of accidents made
by the commission to date, show that
nearly half of them have been directly
or indirectly caused by bad tracks.
Some of them could have beeen avert
had speed restrictions been observed,
but a few were likely TO occur even at
low speed. In one serious derailment
an examination of the track in the vi
cinity of the accident disclosed 906 rot
ten ties within distance of lat rall
rails there were eleven 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
'DelltNS SS lIlStG ICaIh VI llISIl anu iIlS CCl
ial is responsible for bad track condi-
tions on many roads.
A frequent cause of accidents is the
defective rail The bureau of stand
ards has been studying rail specifica-
tions, and its Investigations have re-
vealed the fact that the commercial
specifications in the manufacture and
testing of rails is inadequate to dis
close the most common cause of rail
failures. It's engineer physicist points
out that the line of demarcation be
tween safe and unsafe conditions has
not been demonstrated in practical
railway engineering, and that it is not
known how little margin of strength
resides in the track. He says that
comparatively little engineering in
formation is available, pertaining 20
the structural value of the material
used in rail manufacturing and to the
stress set upon railroad tracks under
modern operating conditions.
After all, however, according to the
commerce commission, the
human equation causes the greatest
perpleXity in solving the problem Of
preventing railroad wrecks. By far
the greatest number of serious train
accidents are due to the failure Ct
some responsible employees to perform
an essential duty at a critical time.
Nearly two-thirds of all the accidents
investigated were caused by mistakes
on the part of employees. The most
numerous failures were by train men
or engine men, who disobeyed orders
and signals; who failed to keep clear
of superior trains; who improperly
tagged other trains; and who failed
to control speed at dangerous points.
Some errors were made by train dis
patchers and telegraph operators.
There are many railroads which
I've 81 " PCIlSSb SWIM "a
railroad operation as to prevent acci-
dents. The Pennsylvania Railroad
has a system of surprise tests in
vogue. During one year it's inspect
tors administered surprise tests in
1,134,715 instances, and in 80 $40 per
cent of these tests the showing made
by the persons tested was perfect.
One could scarcely expect higher
score than this. And yet, the failures
in that two-tenths Of l per cent of
the tests might have resulted in more
than 1000 accidents.
1t will be seen from this that the
greatest hope of the future in the
elimination of accidents, lies in the
provision of means by which the hu-
man element in railroad operation can
be effectively checked by automatic
control systems. In this direction hun
dreds of inventions in the perfection
of block signals and automatic train
ctopc bava baap m aado and if iS cO1-